OPEN: A Gone Fanfiction
by Tremax
Summary: The world before the FAYZ was nothing like you may have expected. Take the journey into the world to learn about several characters before the stress came tunneling through. Multiple Slash. HF7. Story Completed!
1. Chapter 1: Waking Up In Perdido Beach

OPEN: A GONE FANFICTION.

Chapter One: Waking Up In Perdido Beach  
16 DAYS. 6 HOURS.

1

Sam sat there in his bed. The FAYZ hadn't come down yet, and Sam didn't even care mostly because he didn't know what was to come. He rubbed his eyes as he climbed out of his twin bed. His tan body glistened in the sunlight as he walked over to the closet. The only reason he glistened was because Sam had nightmares. The nightmares vaused Sam to sweat, and that sweat is what reflected in the light.

Light. It always felt good to think about the light. Especially the light in the closet. That light. It was a special light that was for sure. The way it glowed in his closet without stop. The way it…

"Sam!"

"Yeah ma?"

"I was just making sure you're up! I've got to start heading down to Coates, I'll see you after school!"

"Okay Ma!"

Sam waited until she left and then he jumped back on his bed and lay down. He didn't actually have to get up for school for another twenty minutes, so maybe it was time to do what Sam hardly got time to. Something that Sam loved to do.

Sam grabbed the lotion on the side of his bed by the wall and put some on his right hand. Then he lowered his boxers to his knees and rubbed his hands together. He didn't need any porn to get hard. It just happened whenever he had the thought of jacking off. He placed both hands on his erection, the left hand on the lower half, the right on the top. Then he slowly began stroking.

God it felt so good. That feeling of everything being alright in the world swept over him as the rubbing took its toll. He stroked faster, now only with his right hand, and he smiled a wicked smile as he bucked his hips at the motion of his hand.

That's when it happened, that's when everything really changed for Sam. Sam sometimes had these, images in his head that played like a video, and it took him in like it was really happening. This one came quickly and it was the most confusing one he ever had. It was Quinn. His best guy friend in the entire world. He was shirtless on the beach and smiling at Sam. Then he started rubbing his thin chest and pushed his hand directly into the front of his swim trunks. His hand rubbed, Back and Forth, Back and Forth. Sam was so into it, he had no idea why, he just was. He came all over his abs and chest, and then he placed his hands on his forehead.

He couldn't have these thoughts. They weren't right. He was dating somebody. A girl named Sarah. (When the FAYZ came down, Sarah would actually be one of the first to die, parents driving off a cliff into the ocean as they disappeared, but none of this would phase Sam since they would be breaking up really soon). Sam wiped up the cum with the tissue by his bed, and then continued to lay there. His soft length sitting there, he fell back asleep. Sam never got to school that day, but his friend Quinn did, along with his other friends.

He thought as he fell asleep, _Even though I'm not going to school, I'm still going to hang with Quinn later. Just so I can tell him about what I saw, and we can laugh about it._

But Quinn didn't laugh about it, no, what happened next, Quinn didn't laugh about at all.

2

Quinn had been waiting on the beach for Sam, and he didn't look too happy.

"Hey dude, how's it hangin'?"

Quinn looked at him, and smiled. It's not that Quinn looked sad or anything, he just didn't look himself.

"Low bro."

Sam smiled and put his arm over Quinn's shoulder.

"I have something I have to tell you."

Quinn smiled.

"Shoot."

Sam smiled bigger, a grin in fact, and Quinn returned it again.

"Um, earlier today, the strangest thing happened."

Quinn looked at Sam and he was no longer smiling.

"Were you at school today by any chance?"

"Nope."

Sam made eye contact with Quinn, and they didn't say anything for a minute or two until Quinn said,

"I didn't go either. Missed the bus…"

Sam nodded.

"I missed it too. I got caught up in masturbation."

Sam laughed then, but Quinn did not.

"Me too. I, uh, got caught up in masturbation."

Quinn blushed a bit as the words escaped, he never really talked much except to Sam, and he had never ever talked about his masturbation habits with anyone.

Sam wrapped Quinn into a hug then, and then spoke quietly in his ear,

"I had a flicker."

That was what Sam called his tiny flashes in and out of his day. His daydreams that were more than daydreams. Quinn didn't respond at first, instead he hugged Sam back. He wasn't afraid of being seen since they were on the little alcove of rocks by the beach and the only people who could see them would have to be on a boat and pretty close to the shore.

"What was it about?"

Sam brought his body close to Quinn and held him like that. Sometimes when they were on this alcove they did this, mostly after a really good surf but also if Quinn's parents were having their usual issues.

"I had it while I was masturbating; I came because of it…"

Quinn smiled to himself and then kissed the nook of Sam's shoulder. He had no idea why he did it, it just felt like the moment to do it. Sam let go a bit and looked Quinn in the eyes,

"Did you… kiss my armpit?"

Quinn giggled.

"Yeah, I'm sorry…"

Sam kissed his cheek and then said,

"We're even."

Quinn giggled and pulled himself away from Sam a bit, but Sam locked his fingers together and held Quinn to him by putting his interlocked hands on the small of Quinn's back.

"So Sam, what was the flicker about?"

Quinn pressed his groin lightly against Sam, and maybe Sam pressed back, just to let Quinn know that it wasn't a big deal, or maybe he didn't even notice he did it.

"This guy was on the beach touching himself… it made me cum so fast."

Quinn looked at him questionably,

"A guy?"

Quinn had sometimes thought some of the things he and Sam did together were a bit gay, but he never thought that Sam actually rolled that way.

"Yeah, promise you won't tell anyone?"

Quinn nodded repetitively,

"Who was the guy?"

Sam smiled and his groin rubbed up against Quinn's a bit rougher this time.

"You…"

Quinn didn't know what came over him, one second the light gayness was okay, but as soon as Sam said that, it was just way too weird for one day. He looked at Sam and backed away, and then he said,

"I've gotta go bro. Call me later tonight."

Quinn started walking away, not looking back at the boy who he had just pressed his groin against in his own act of lust.

"Quinn… wait…"

But Quinn didn't wait, he just walked away.

3

Astrid didn't kow how to respond

Honestly, she hardly ever came to a question that she couldn't answer in her life, and by someone like Orc. Oh, Charles. She was tutoring him, and he had asked a question that made her think so hard it made her head hurt.

"Why don't you go out with anyone?"

How was she supposed to honestly answer that? As if she thought about getting together with every other guy in school. As if.

Astrid was just not into dating, she didn't really have a reason, but she jus didn't date.

Or maybe she didn't date because nobody wanted to date her. Maybe that was the actual reason why Astrid was so alone.

But really who knows? Honestly, Astrid didn't care, but avoiding the question just wouldn't happen.

"Uh, I don't know. I'm just not interested in anyone..."

Charles nodded solemnly and then smiled,

"You've gotta find someone who's perfect for Astrid The Genius."

Astrid laughed and giggled lightly. Her giggle made Orc smile too. Somewhere in the distance, a man was hollering.

4

"This is the end of the world! Tribulation is near! The end is impending! I implore you all to change your lives around, before it is too late for change!"

What the hell?

Who was this idiot screaming from the steps of town hall?

He was wearing a black robe, so there was no way he was a priest. Pastors and such always wear white right? So there was no way this guy was a monk or something.

No, stupid.

Monks wore brown right? God.

It really had been a long time since Cookie had went down to church, he really had no clue.

But this man was wearing all black, and he didn't look like he was the friendliest guy in the world, he just looked like he had a message to deliver.

And he sure was delivering it.

"Life is coming to an end! All of you are fools for thinking that the lives you lead are correct! Ka will catch up with you! I have planted the seed of the gaiaphage, and he will show you all the error of your ways!"

Cookie had to admit, this was kind of scary. This man was actually frightening him just a bit.

Gaiaphage?

Ka?

He thinks he may have heard of ka before in a book, but he didn't really like to read, and he must have seen the book a long time ago.

Cookie turned on his heel and bounced away, sweat on his brow from the hot Perdido Beach day.

"The end is near! Everyone WILL die if you do not heed my warning! All of the people in this town will burn! You'll all FUCKING burn!"

Cookie turned around again when the man cursed out the obscenity, and watched as the crowd around him got bigger and the murmurs turned into full conversations.

Cookie could see a police officer coming up out of the corner of his eye.

"16 days. Until the end begins."

The cop approached the man with a hand raised, and his other on his gun holster.

"16 days until LIFE becomes DEATH!"

The cop grabbed the man in black and escorted him away.

The man turned back and screamed,

"Everything you think you know is wrong, just because this officer thinks different do not fall for the lies! Watch this, I will show you the darkness is coming!"

Clouds started covering the sky as the man was dragged to the cop's squad car.

"Look alive! Look ALIVE!"

As the people looked up Cookie watched the man. In one second he was there, and the next second Cookie and the cop were looking at the blank spot where the man had been with confused eyes.

The man disappeared in one second, and a crow took his place. It flew off into the sky, cawed, and then disappeared, as the clouds started to leak on the ground.

That thunderstorm was the worst that Perdido Beach had in twelve years.

**End of Chapter One.**


	2. Chapter 2: A Night In Coates

Chapter Two: A Night In Coates  
15 DAYS. 16 HOURS.

1

Quinn was lying in his bed that night.

He was thinking about Sam, that was true, but he didn't know what he was thinking about Sam.

_The truth will set you free!_

That quote came into his head as he looked up at his ceiling. Sure, he liked Sam, but was it really that kind of attraction? Was Sam... worth being gay for?

That sounded cruel. Wrong. Of course Sam was worth it, but Quinn was NOT gay. He didn't even know why he was thinking about this, he didn't even know why this topic was still in his head.

Quinn wasn't gay, never has been, never will be. Yeah, that's for sure.

But... then why did his... part, raise higher when he thought of Sam on the beach? Sam surfing and his abs all wet as he rode the crystal clear waves. Sam as he came back onto the beach with his dirty blonde hair sparkling in the setting sun.

Quinn moaned lightly and bucked his hips.

He liked that thought. He had never thought of Sam like that before, but right then when he did, he felt something that he hadn't felt before.

Sure he thought of girls, sure he did. Sure he watched porn on the laptop that was charging in the corner of his room. Sure he had videos saved on his hard drive of sex, and lesbians.

But something Quinn did not have was gay sex. (Sam didn't either, but that thought wouldn't have comforted Quinn at all) He couldn't even imagine how gross it would be to watch that.

But then, why did he like seeing Sam... like that?

Maybe it was just their bond, and maybe Sam had planted that idea in Quinn and he was only feeling that because he didn't know what else to feel...

As Quinn thought of this his hand made it's way down to the waistband of his boxer briefs. They slowly went into that abyss and locked around something that was stiff. Well, not quite stiff yet, but that would change.

Quinn saw Sam again in his head as he stroked his member, and it made his thighs quiver as Sam stripped before him on that camera in his head.

He liked it, loved it maybe, and it made him bust all over his blanket.

Quinn was so relaxed, that he fell asleep in it, wet and all.

2

Caine was pissed off.

Like he always is, ever since that stupid bitch sold him out.

Stupid lesbo. Everybody knew it was true. She looked enough like a man that she had to like women, that stupid manly Dekka.

Maybe Caine was being a little immature, but he was sitting there pissed off alone all because Dekka blabbed to Becky about what she saw.

Becky was the girl that Caine had been sleeping with before the FAYZ came down, she was nothing special, nothing like Diana.

That was why he was in trouble tonight, because Dekka had seen Caine flirting with Diana. She told Becky and Becky dumped him.

Not that it mattered, she wouldn't matter when the FAYZ came down. Not that Caine knew about the FAYZ, but if he did know then he'd know all about Becky taking her last minute vacation to San Francisco and being trapped outside of the dome when it came down.

_Her parents took her right on time, _

Caine would think at one point, but after that, he'd never think of her again.

Caine let out a soft sigh as he sat alone on his bed in his room. Alone. Not even his friend Drake was around. Which may or may not be a good thing.

Caine walked out of his room, it was lights out already, but maybe he could go find that bitch Dekka and give her a piece of his mind.

He walked into the dark hallway. Lights out was two hours ago, but he didn't mind the dark. Only two or three teachers actually slept at the school to watch the kids, and they were all known for how early they hit the sheets.

Right when that thought crossed Caine's mind he thought of Diana.

_Hit the sheets._

That's something he wanted to do with Diana, oh hell yes.

He started getting flustered as he walked down the hallway, and he leaned on one of the doors and closed his eyes.

Diana... God. The images flied in his head of her, stripping, her beautiful body bouncing on Caine's dick. Bouncing up and down and up and down.

He had an erection in the hallway.

It was not cool, and Caine could not have it regardless how hot the girl was.

Caine knew all about sex sure, but he didn't have a clue about masturbation, so he stood there, embarassed in the dark, waiting for it to soften up.

Eventually of course it happened, but before it could, the door he was leaning on opened, and he backed into the room and fell on the floor.

"Shit."

He looked up at the kid by the door as he said,

"Why were you at my door?"

Caine started standing up and looked at the boy,

"Sorry Jack. I was... uh... tying my shoe."

Jack nodded and didn't even bother to look down at Caine's bare feet. Before Jack could say anything else Caine stormed back into the hallway and did a fast walk to the staircase.

He laughed to himself when he got there. Why had he apologized to Jack? Something he hardly ever did and he said it to Jack. Caine was never sorry. Was he embarassed of his erection? Was that it? He looked down at his Coates Academy gym shorts and saw the stiff growth had subsided. He walked over to the bathroom a little ways away from the staircase and locked himself in.

He let out a soft moan after turning on the lights. Then he slid down to the floor and held his hands to his face in the private bathroom.

After a few seconds like that, and a few more thoughts of Diana, he rubbed against his soft dick lightly wth one hand and pulled his knees to his chest. Then he spread his knees, (as if sitting like a butterfly) and rubbed his dick faster. He rubbed it like a woman would rub herself (like Diana does so many times in the near future while thinking about him) and he loved it. In just a few seconds, he was stiff all over again, but this time he would try somehing different.

He left the bathroom and ran back to his room and got back in bed. He laid on his side and stuck his hands in his gym shorts. He put his hand around his stiff member and stroked it slowly. He didn't know what he was doing, but he did it, just because it felt good. The fire in the pit of his pelvic girdle overtook him and he laid on his back. He threw his shirt and gym shorts on the floor and after a minute of hesitation he pulled off his boxers and threw those on the floor too.

He stroked his dick faster, faster. He bucked his hips forward and then started bucking his whole body as if he was having sex. He imagined Diana, so beautiful, riding him. He had seen the videos with his friend Drake in Coates' library on the computers. They gave him an erection but he would have never done this with Drake.

Faster, faster still. This feeling that he only had in sex, (his sex was never that great, he lost his virginity to Becky and only had sex with her twice) but this on was so much more personal, so much more on his own than the other.

He stroked faster and faster, and with his free hand he touched the two balls hanging under that long shaft of his. He moaned out loud as tension escaped him all the way down his spine. He pulled on the skin of his balls and moaned out loud, God it felt so good. It felt amazing.

He didn't care about seeing Dekka anymore. He just cared about this, Oh fuck, he loved this.

He bucked faster, faster, and cried out like a little girl as the sperm threatened to release and then, at the worst moment possible...

His roomate walked in.

3

Drake hadn't been having that great of a night either. He just screwed that strawberry blonde because she begged him to death. Even while she was dating Caine, every timed he looked away she threw a wink, or blew a kiss.

Well, she never blew a kiss any harder than she blew tonight.

Becky was good, Drake had to admit, but she wasn't that great. Mostly because pity sex isn't a very good turn on for Drake.

He walked up the staircase and down the hallway to his room, he stuck in his key, (God it was late, Caine was probably knocked out) and unlocked the door. He opened it, and then turned on the light, what he saw may have made some other guy throw up. Drake just shut the door and smiled as Caine blushed and stood up to his grab his underwear on the floor.

"Stop."

Drake held up a hand as Caine bent down to get his underwear. His dick was dripping with pre-cum and it was pointing straight at Caine, nice and hard.

"Finish, so I can lay down in peace without feeling like I interrupted you."

Caine smiled and then stood there and stroked it slowly.

"What do you mean finish?"

Drake was only in a good mood because of the sex, any other day and he might have just yelled at Caine for being so disgusting.

"It's called masturbation. After you're done you'll cum. Like you do after you have sex, or the guys in the pornos do. Y'know?"

Caine blushed and looked down at his dick, he was still stroking it slowly. Anyone else and he might have been a bit embarassed in the nude like that, but for some reason he had no shame at that moment, and Drake seemed like he didn't mind at all.

He sat back down on the edge of the bed as Drake changed into his gym shorts. He kept his shirt off though and walked over to his bed, kicking Caine's shorts away as he laid down. He looked over at Caine and watched. Caine watched him as well, with an open mouth. Caine took his free hand again and tugged lightly on the skin of his balls and moaned loudly, and Drake grinned as he did it.

Unlike Sam and Quinn, who were questioning their sexuality and making everything difficult; Drake just didn't fucking care. He was no faggot, but he definitely liked when Caine acted all... well, not Caine-ish. Vulnerable. Drake liked vulnerability. He didn't care what the gender was, either way he was going to get off to it, so why should it matter?

He stood up and walked over to Caine and laid him back, he also pulled his pocket knife out.

"Shh."

He said as he pulled Caine's hand away from his throbbing dick, Caine just let him too, he wouldn't mind Drake right now, but only when he was so far gone in horniness that it didn't matter anymore.

Drake went to the door and locked it, then he went to the lightswitch and flicked it. The only light was coming from the tiny lamp in the middle of Caine and his own bed.

He walked over to Caine and positioned himself between Caine's legs. He wrapped Caine's legs around his waist and smiled. Caine looked hazy, his eyes half open and his cheeks flushed as Drake showed him the knife.

"Scream and I'll kill you... got it?"

Caine bit his lower lip and smiled lightly. That was a lie, he knew it, Drake wouldn't kill him, but Caine agreed anyway; he wanted to release so damn badly.

Caine felt Drake shuffle out of his gym shorts and then he felt Drake's hip bones against the back of his legs. He smiled and bit his lip harder, and that's when Drake kind of surprised him.

Drake pressed the tip of the knife near Caine's navel and cut him. It wasn't deep but it broke skin enough to cause blood to exit. Blood seeped down and Drake pressed his mouth to it, and got the blood on his lips. Caine moaned extremely loud, and looked at Drake's lowered head in shock. He would have screamed at him, the effect of stimulation worn off quite a bit, but then Drake did the unthinkable.

As the first word departed Caine's lips, to forever be lost in the night, Drake wrapped his cold hand around Caine's dick and rapidly jacked him off. Caine leaned up and scratched Drake's back out of pure ecstasy, and that time Drake moaned as the nails pierced his skin just a bit.

He sat up and looked Caine in the eyes. Drake smiled at him as Caine's erection rubbed up against Drake's underwear. Drake slipped out of them and the took his hard dick and rubbed it against Caine's. Caine moaned as Drake leaned down on his body and placed something metal in his hand.

"Cut me..." Drake whispered and sat up, his hard dick resting on Caine's balls and running down to his ass. Caine grabbed on to the knife, so lost in lust, and cut Drake on the side of his stomach.

Drake moaned, the cut wasn't deep but it was good enough to make Drake have to jack himself off. As he jacked himself off he jacked Caine off, and Caine bucked his hips as Drake did the deed.

Maybe what happened next was an accident, or maybe Drake did it on purpose. But Caine's ass plummeted onto Drake's dick on one of the thrusts, and Drake let it go and just jacked off Caine. Caine continued to buck, pushing Drake's dick farther into him. Drake moaned and moaned, and leaned on Caine's body and continued to jack him off.

By now Caine knew what he was doing, and with pride he shoved Drake's dick all the way into him. He didn't care about anything now except pleasure, and pleasure was what he was going to get.

No.

He wasn't just going for pleasure,

He was going for climax.

Orgasm.

Yeah, he was going for orgasm.

Caine didn't exactly know how ass-in-dick experiences worked, but he knew enough to keep bucking, letting Drake's dick go in and out, in and out, until Drake couldn't control it anymore.

Caine was having so much fun, Drake was in the palm of his hand, and he didn't want him to stop jacking him off almost as much as he didn't want him to keep pounding his ass.

Fuck. Caine loved having that pounding. Just for now though, just because this was his first experience in masturbation and he needed something fun and special to remember it by.

He pounded that fucking dick so hard, and Drake moaned like a bitch as Caine did it. He was slowing on the jacking off of Caine. But that was alright, Caine felt good, and for some reason the fucking was still pleasing him greatly.

He cut Drake again, because he knew Drake wanted it, and Drake did. He screamed out, and that's when he started pounding back, going into perfect rythm as they both thrusted in a melodious fashion.

Then Caine almost screamed as a wet sensation covered his dick. He looked down and saw Drake's head bobbing back and forth on his dick, deep throating it, and licking all over it with his tongue.

He came then, all inside of Drake's mouth, and it felt so good.

Drake thrusted a few more times, and then a hot liquid released into Caine, and Caine wouldn't lie. He really liked the feel of it.

Then Drake collapsed on Caine and smiled at him, cum dripping from his mouth. They would not kiss, that would be weird, but they would stare. Drake whispered quietly at the same time as Caine, and they hugged each other close when it had been said.

What they said was,

"Our secret."

**End of Chapter Two.**


	3. Chapter 3: Flashes and Flickers

Chapter Three: Flashes And Flickers  
15 DAYS. 11 HOURS.

1

Diana was having a lot of fun on her night out of the room. Well, she did it often of course, and oh God, it was so much fun. She didn't care how many times she snuck out, it would still be a load of fun. She had her friend with her, a girl named Brianna, and they were just running around. Brianna was loud, but she was also fast, so sure she was dangerous sometimes but other times she added to the fun. Like when they had to run from that teacher a few weeks back.

That was toxic.

So, Diana and Brianna ended up being cool.

Well, at least they were going to stay that way until the FAYZ came down, then Diana and Brianna would put this situation behind them and their friendship will be but a distant memory.

They were sitting around, not doing anything when Brianna said,

"Soooooooooo, we gonna go get Caine tonight?"

Diana looked over at her, a frown curling up on her face.

"No. I think I got him in trouble..."

Brianna looked at Diana, most people would have asked why, but no, not Brianna. All Brianna had to say in reply was,

"Oh. Okay."

But Diana couldn't stop herself from thinking about it. And when she thought about it, it came and wouldn't leave.

_She had been in the courtyard, just out of lunch, and Caine had went to the bathroom, so she waited so they could go to class together. He finally came out, at least ten minutes later, and she stood up to meet him halfway. He didn't talk when he walked up, he just grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the school. They ran through the hallways, hand-and-hand, and ran straight to the back. They ended up at the private bathroom at the far back corner of the room. Caine dragged her in there and locked the door. Diana looked at him questionably._

"What's this about?"

_Caine pressed his lips to Diana's and leaned back against the door, then she pulled away._

_"What was that for?"_

Here. This is the truth.

_Caine and Diana made out when they were alone, but that was as far as they would go. One time, Caine was able to hold one of Diana's boobs. (Not a bare one, but a boob nontheless) Also, another time, Diana rubbed Caine's hardening dick. (Also not bare of course)_

_Making out was all they did that day. And after they were done Diana just wiped her bottom lip and smiled. They were done when the bell rang, meaning they had been kissing for a little over fifty minutes, which was a fucking new record._

_They walked out together, they weren't afraid, and Diana leaned against the wall. Caine put a hand on the wall and leaned near her and said, "Let's have some more fun later?"_

_That's what Dekka saw of course. That and the final kiss that Caine gave Diana before walking away. Diana saw her too, but she didn't think to say anything. _

_She just walked as she walked away, and then the drama unfolded._

_She had been sitting in the library when Becky approached her a few hours later._

_To be short, saying the situation wasn't pretty would be an understatement. _

_Becky grabbed Diana's hair and threw her out of the chair she was sitting on. She got on top of Diana and started smacking her repeatedly. Diana had no idea what was going on or who the girl hitting her was, so she couldn't exactly stop the girl until she got a better grasp of what the fuck was happening at the moment._

_Then it hit her. Well, maybe that's a bad way to describe it, since the only thing physically hitting her was this strawberry blonde with the heavy hands._

_"You fucking bitch!"_

_It was Becky who was hitting her, Caine's girlfriend. (She had no clue they had broke up less than ten minutes ago)_

_"Fucking homewrecker!"_

_Then Becky started doing something that may have been just a little bit over the top. She started banging Diana's head on the carpet of the library._

_Diana was in pain, that was for sure, but she wasn't hurt enough to pull the mace from her pocket. Mace always came in handy and this was one of the perfect examples of how true that was._

_"AHHH!"_

_Becky clawed at her face, her eyes maddeningly red and her face turning a bright shade of pink._

_"You fucking bitch! I'll fucking kill you! Just you wait!"_

Diana never ran away from anyone before in her whole life, but at that moment, she found there may have been no other choice.

_Diana went back to her room and stayed there, until Brianna came knocking several hours later._

"Diana? Diana!"

Diana looked over at Brianna with a blank stare.

"Huh?"

The younger girl chuckled,

"Welcome back space cadet, how're the rocks on Mars?"

Diana didn't laugh. Nope, she didn't even giggle. She just looked away.

2

Lana was in the basement, trying to figure out which of the drinks in there had the most alcohol. Tony loved the fresh ones, the ones that weren't old. Lana knew how to figure out which was which, and for Tony, she would do anything.

She grabbed a purple bottle and read the label.

Shit.

The date on that one was 1933. That would never do, Tony would probably gag, or worse, spit on Lana again and then yell at her.

Lana couldn't have that, oh no, Lana needed something that would make him happy, something that would win her something close to his last visit, when he tickled her fancy a bit.

It felt so good. His hands down there in the place that usually only had one visitor. It was like taking care of an itch, and Tony knew how to take care of it just fine.

Just thinking about it Lana had to pause. She stood up, in the dark basement, and rubbed on her thighs. Oh God. That feeling was coming back, pins and needles rushing down her body, Lana was loving this feeling. She pushed her hand into her skinny jeans and past the thin cloth that protected her privates and she felt the warmth and heat that had accumulated there.

She pulled her hand out and started looking at the beverages again, trying to get past that moment of euphoria that had just past her.

She knelt down by the 'Wall of Wine' and checked everything else that she hadn't checked yet. She grabbed three and snuck out of the basement, heading towards the front door. Tony was always willing to see her, so running over there now shouldn't be a problem. But this time, she had been intercepted.

Standing in front of the door, just coming inside, was her grandfather. He had been there only the day before, and given a key. He said he was going to be back in the early morning and here he was.

Dammit!

She thought that just as the old man looked up at her. He had caught her red-handed and he wasn't even trying to. She dropped the beer to the ground and it broke open.

This could be used as a metaphor to her life, since Lana's life pretty much fell to pieces after that.

3

The dark man was in the desert.

It didn't really matter where in the desert, but he was there.

No, it did matter where. He was at the old mining town.

But at the moment it wasn't an old town, he was seeing it as a bustling town with people and animals. He was seeing it for what it was 50 years ago.

The dark man had that power, to be able to see remnants of a place in the past, he could even see what something would end up being in the near future.

Which was how he knew about Perdido Beach burning.

He saw it in a vision the night before, and that vision had alo told him to come here.

He had been there before, to plant the seed of the gaiaphage, and plant it he had.

The mine looked no different than it had in the days before, except now it had something next to it that didn't quite fit into the scenery of the town.

Sitting next to the mine was a big red Ford F150.

The dark man walked over to it and ran his fingers down the side. Then he took the dirt on them and brushed it off using his robe. He felt the grille of the car, it was still warm.

A miner must have came out to do some exploring. The dark man couldn't let him leave after he sees what was planted in the mine, no, the dark man would have to kill him.

The dark man walked into the mine, and using his powers he created a glowing ball of light. He walked it into the mine, and he heard footsteps far ahead, but he knew the man inside couldn't hear him, this was another one of the dark man's powers: the ability to cloak himself. Which made the situation look like a giant floating light with nobody behind it.

The dark man walked further in and as the setting got a little green, he turned out his light. He heard wolves growling behind him, and he smiled to himself knowing that his loyal legion was behind him for this.

What happened next, only Lana would get to see the result of.

4

Quinn couldn't handle it anymore. He hadn't slept, he hadn't spoke, he hadn't even eaten since he last saw Sam. He was in bed, curled up in a ball, thinking, wondering of what would happen if maybe he went to go see Sam today.

Well, it was eight, and Quinn knew from past experience that Sam's mom had already left for work. Quinn's parents had been gone since seven, and now he was thinking, maybe he should go see Sam before Sam took off to his bus stop.

Quinn hopped out of bed and pulled on some shorts and a solid gray shirt. (He had no plans to go to school again today) He ran out of the house and jumped on his bike, wind blowing his hair all around as he raced down the road to Sam's house.

Damn!

A bus had just turned on to Sam's street, and he couldn't tell which bus it was. He knew there were two kind of busses that when and did the pick-ups for school. The normal bus, and the handicap bus. Quinn had no idea which one he had seen, and he almost broke his chain at the speed he brought himself up to so he could get into Sam's neighborhood.

He almost screamed out in victory when he saw the handicap sign on the back of the bus, and then he continued riding his bike towards Sam's house not too far from where the bus had stopped.

He saw Sam as soon as he had dodged the bus, walking along the sidewalk with his backpack. As he walked down the road, and the sun bounced off his gorgeous hair, and shined back it's own rays of light, Quinn might have fallen in love.

Might have, in the sense that Quinn was still confused about his feelings; but watching Sam just then, Quinn knew without a doubt, that their was something there. Something.

Suddenly Sam stopped walking, and Quinn pulled his bike to a stop. He knew what happened. Sam was having a flicker, he could tell by the look on his face. Sam sat down on top of the electrical box by the sidewalk and looked off into the distance. He hadn't noticed Quinn yet, but staring in this direction he was bound to notice soon.

Quinn's thoughts were correct though, Sam was having a flicker. The ironic thing about this flicker though, was that it was about Quinn.

Sam had jacked off like usual before coming to the bus stop. (He came out ten minutes early today, in case you were wondering) And he had once again jacked off to an image of Quinn. But this flicker was nothing like that image, no, this flicker felt real... but it was different. Sam was seeing it from Quinn's point of view. What the fuck was going on? It was by far the most surreal thing Sam ever experienced in his life.

_Quinn arched his back against Sam and smiled as the boy kissed his neck sweetly. Softly._

_God, Quinn had no idea why he liked this so fucking much, it just felt so good, and he couldn't resist. Even if he had to be called a fag or a queer or whatever, he would always have this to turn to._

_This, being Sam, shirtless, leaning his abs against Quinn's stomach, sliding his hands down Quinn's back and squeezing his ass roughly._

_Quinn kissed Sam deeply, fully, for the first time; after doing it, he knew this was right, he knew this was what he needed to be happy._

_Sam continued to jack himself off and Quinn turned around and leaned his ass against Sam's length._

_Sam moaned at the head of his hard erection rubbed against Quinn, and in one deep breath Quinn shoved that lubed-up dick right into his tight ass._

_It felt so fucking good having Sam inside him, and the best part was, they hadn't even started the thrusting yet._

_Quinn pushed the dick in and out, bending back against it, and then pushing it away by leaning his crotch and ass forward. _

_**Sam moaned.**_

_Quinn pushed back again. Harder, faster, and then he let off. God it felt so good, this rapid thrusting, this oh so good activity that the two were doing together. _

_**Sam moaned louder and thrust his fingers into Quinn's hips.**_

_Quinn yelped and rode that dick faster, faster, and Sam jacked him off as the going got even better._

_"Fuck! Sam, I'm gonna!..."_

Sam snapped out of it then.

He tore off his backpack and quickly put it on his lap to hide what grew there, he hadn't seen Quinn walk up and sit directly behind him.

"What was it about Sam?"

Sam jumped and looked around, turning his body to face the sound of...

Quinn. Live and in color.

Sam's flickers are always in black and white, that's something else that should be mentioned.

Sam looked at Quinn, and Quinn of course returned the stare.

"Can we go back to my place and talk about it? People are going to be coming out to the bus stop soon and I don't want to be seen, like this..." He said, flashing Quinn a quick look at the lump that had appeared on the groin of Sam's tight jeans.

Quinn nodded and then got back on his bike and rode to Sam's house. He didn't wait for Sam, Sam took his own time getting back, giving Quinn time to hide his bike in the backyard.

By the time Sam walked up, he had a question to ask Quinn,

"Where's your backpack?"

Quinn smiled, and what he said next was something that the usual Quinn may have thought but never would have said out loud.

"I'm not going to fucking school. My plan was to stay here all day."

Sam laughed,

"What if I wanted to go to school?"

Quinn winked (something else he would never do) and then giggled,

"I'm sure you and I both know we'd rather be together all day than go to that boring hell-hole."

Nothing else had to be said after that, Sam giggled again and then unlocked the back door into the kitchen. They both stepped in and Sam shut the door behind him. He watched as Quinn looked around and his eyes roamed down Quinn's body. They roamed from Quinn's hair, down to his back, and then to his red basketball shorts. No, let's not lie, those eyes looked directly at Quinn's ass.

Sam looked at his ass, and smiled to himself. Then, realizing he was smiling, he bit his bottom lip, and as he bit Quinn turned to face him.

"Wow, it really has been a while since I've been..."

Quinn didn't finish that sentence. No. He had barely finished the word 'been' when Sam rushed towards him. He pushed Quinn up against the stove with a vigorous force and kissed him on the lips. Quinn didn't complain, no, he locked his arms around Sam's back and kissed back. Sam didn't take time for small talk, he pushed the empty pots on the stove to the floor and pushed Quinn up there to sit (since Sam and Quinn had a little height difference) and he kissed Quinn with dire passion. Since Quinn was up on the stove the boys were exactly the same height (usually Quinn just got to Sam's shoulders, but this was never a problem) and Sam was able to kiss him deeper, with even more force. They broke for a second, and Quinn kissed Sam eight times briefly. Their lips touched and made a noise and they pulled away, and they did it eight times. Sam heard the bus go by, but he didn't fucking care, this was so much better than school, oh God, this was the best. Then Sam thrust his groin into Quinn's as Quinn continued with the small kisses. Sam had about as much as he could take of those though, and he kissed Quinn deeply and did not break. Quinn placed his hands on Sam's neck and kissed him deeply back, and he didn't hesitate when Sam shoved his tongue in his mouth, and their tongues played together and got along just fine.

This was so different from what Caine and Drake had, this was real passion, this was something that they both wanted, needed, to be full, to be complete.

They continued to kiss, and Sam did something then that he had seen in one of his flickers last night, he teased Quinn's nipple. He put his hand in Quinn's shirt, and squeezed the nipple that had become rock hard. Quinn moaned so loud and kissed Sam with those brief wet kisses again and Sam could feel Quinn's piece growing harder and harder against his.

Sam thought momentarily,_ 'This is the hottest this stove will ever get'_, as he thrust his tongue into Quinn's mouth again to taste that tongue. That tongue made Sam's insides fall down; they made Sam feel complete, that tongue was something Sam needed, he needed to taste it to be happy.

They sat like that kissing and teasing each other's nipples for three hours, and then they fell asleep in Sam's bed together.

Maybe the most adorable fact of this whole situatuion was this,

They didn't need sex that day to become satisfied, they were happy with just kisses.

**End of Chapter Three.**


	4. Chapter 4: Lustful Destruction

Chapter Four: Lustful Destruction  
15 DAYS. 2 HOURS.

1

Orsay was sitting in the stupid ranger tower. She was so bored. So so bored, and honestly she wished she could just be home.

_Three visits._

She said that in her head quietly.

_Three more visits to this stupid park until my uncle gets a better job._

Which was true, her uncle said he was quitting in a little over two weeks, and she believed him about it. (not that it would matter since her last visit would be the day the dome came down)

She put her feet up on the desk and sat back. She didn't really care about the place, she wanted to get the heck out of it.

She leaned back in the chair, and before she could do anything, she fell to the floor.

"Ow..."

She leaned up and that's when it happened, she smacked her head on the corner of the desk and passed out. It was in that sleep that she had the first vision of her life.

_Fire!_

_A man? Who was he, smiling at Orsay, then falling back into the world.  
Green lights and a bright flash._

_A SCREAM! "HELP!"  
A young man? Familiar? No. _

_Questions popping in, then a glass bowl._

_Falling, falling, LANDING._

_Kids pressed against the wall, wanting escape! Needing_

_FREEDOM! Help them!_

_I can't! Nerrezza screamed at her! Loud!  
You must save them!_

_NO! I MUST NOT!  
A hole in the ground. A spanish boy with a shovel. _

_A whip._

_A ball of light, a smile._

_A glare. A hanging. A jump, NO, a leap, children crying out._

_A man with a ghostly grin,_

_"Orsay. I am coming for you."  
"Who? Who are you?"_

_"I am the man of the night. I am the haunter of dreams. The killer of hopes and promise."  
"I don't understand..."  
"Understand this young one. You will die. SOON."  
"Wh...what?...why?"_

_"It must be done, a sacrifice."_

_"Please... I don't wanna die."_

_Then a pause, and finally a whisper,_

_"But you must."_

_Orsay looked around her. Alas, she was in darkness, so this was impossible. Directly in front of her, the lighting changed though._

_It was a hallway she was in, and candles were lighting up on the walls along each side of this hallway. Orsay walked down the hallway cautiously, and as she did, she heard voices._

_"Orsayyyyyyyyyyyyy."_

_The voices called her in whispers, and in whispers they continued to call her._

_She walked towards them, not quite thinking that this might be a bad iea, following nothing in particular. The candles continued to light up a never ending hallway._

_Then something really strange occurred. All of the fire lit on the candles in the hallway turned a bright neon green. The fire burned like that, green, casting an eerie glow down the hallway._

_But Orsay couldn't stop walking, she had to see what was at the end of the hall...way?_

_She was no longer in a hallway... she was in a weird place, with rock walls. But nonetheless she continued, and seeing the end of the... whatever the hell this place was... made her feel a bit better._

_Standing there was a man, and behind him was some kind of weird green crystal thing. Orsay could hear her heartbeating, and she couldn't stop hearing it, or try not to hear it by blocking it out, and everytime it did one of it's heavy beats the whole cave would appear red to her._

_Just for that one second in the heartbeat, and then a few second later._

_Bump Bump._

_It wasn't a fast heartbeat, it was a heartbeat that occurred every few seconds. But it stopped cold when the dark man opened his mouth, it stopped frozen._

_"Hello prophetess."|_

_What the heck did that mean?  
_

_"You won't remember me when the day comes, but what I am about to do will live with you forever."_

_He took steps towards Orsay, and Orsay was screaming at herself to move, move the FUCK away from that man! Move! Move!_

_The man approached her and put both of his hands on her cranium._

_"Now. We deliver."_

_The man's face eroded into itself and Orsay screamed finally. Oh GOD, THAT PAIN._

Orsay woke up and looked around the room. She was scared. What a terrible nightmare. She stood up and looked around the ranger's office, oh God she was scared, who was that man?

She sat down on the couch in the corner of the room and held herself.

She had no idea what she should make of those dreams. Err... nightmares.

2

Fuck. Brittney was so bored.

This stupid teacher, gosh, Brittney hated math more than any other subject, that was for sure. She tapped her pencil on the desk and looked at her paper.

She didn't care to understand any of this crap.

Just then, two kids walked in the room. They were a bit older, and they walked up to the teacher with smiles. Well, one had a smile, let's not tell lies, the other had a straight-line expression that Brittney used in text messages when someone didn't understand her.

Then something she didn't expect happened, the teacher laughed and pointed the two to the back of the room, and then she came back to the board.

"Now class, silently you will be on page 62, doing the even numbered questions. There will be no talking, the two kids in the back are taking a test and if you talk you go to the vice principal for a disciplinary referral."

Brittney was quiet, this was her first year at this school and she didn't even have a clue where the Vice Principal's office was.

So she wasn't going to talk, so she planned.

Too bad that didn't work out for her.

To start off, the teacher already disliked Brittany because of her sarcasm (which Brittany had no idea she ever used), and second, the teacher just didn't like how Brittany looked.

So, the girl who had sat behind Brittany tapped on her back and asked,

"You got a pencil I can borrow?"

Maybe because she said it so loud, the teacher was already starting to looking over; when Brittany whispered her one word the teacher turned over to face her at a rapid speed.

"No."

"Brittney! To the Vice Principal!"

"But..."

"No buts, go!"

Brittney looked at her, and then she growled softly to herself and whispered,

"No."

The teacher's face blushed a bit, and some girl in the corner let out a quiet noise and put her hand up to her mouth.

"What did you say?"

Brittney repeated,

"I said 'No', and I meant it. She was the one talking, not me."

She said as she pointed to the dark-haired girl behind her.

"I didn't hear her though, I heard you, now I will ask you one more time. Go to the Vice Principal's office, NOW."

The teacher's face was a deep red, but Brittany held her composure,

"I said, NO."

The teacher smiled then, and then she walked over to the phone on her desk,

"Fine, then she will just have to come here to you."

The teacher walked over to the phone and before she typed in the number she looked up at the class, holding the receiver,

"Don't look at me! You have work to do!"

Alll of the kids ruffled their papers around and got back to work, some of them whispered amongst themselves, while others just got right back to work.

Eventually the Vice Principal stormed in the room and started whispering to the teacher, she looked over at Brittney a few times as they spoke, and then the Vice Principal walked over.

"Hi Brittney, can I ask you to come with me?"

Brittney looked up at her, tears threatening to spill,

"No. I didn't do anything wrong! That stupid idiot is just being unfair again!"

The teacher laughed and then said to the Vice Principal,

"Excuse her, Mrs. Zhang, she seems to still be going through some post-trauma."

The Vice Principal turned to face the teacher, and she said,

"With what?"

By now all of the kids had looked back up, and Brittney was looking up at her teacher with pleading eyes, begging her not to bring those memories back. But she did, and she what she said next, she said with a grin,

"You're still new Mrs. Zhang, so you don't know about the rape."

"YOU BITCH!"

Brittney screamed and ran out of the room, she got about as far as the girl's bathroom and ran inside of one of the stalls to cry.

Back in the classroom, the girl who had asked for a pencil stood up for Brittney,

"You were wrong to accuse her when you knew nothing of the situation, and you were very very wrong for bringing up such a rough subject for her. She was right, you are a bitch."

The Vice Principal was expressionless, but the teacher's eyes grew wide and she turned red again,

"Who are you to come in my classroom and say that when you don't even belong here?"

The girl, Jessica Vasquez, smiled,

"I'm your worst fucking nightmare."

Then she walked out of the room, the teacher and the Vice Principal were frozen in shock as she departed.

Jessica walked slowly to the bathroom, and then when she arived she walked in and knocked on the fourth stall.

"Brittney?"

No noise came from the other side of the locked stall, and Jessica knocked again.

"I know you're in there."

Just then Brittney sniffled, and then said,

"How'd you know?"

Jessica laughed and put her hands on her hips,

"I didn't. Lucky guess that you answered. Now get out here and talk to me."

Brittney sniffled again,

"I am talking to you."

Jessica leaned against the stall,

"Not what I meant."

Brittney paused for a moment and then said,

"Why do you care if I come out?"

Jessica stood back up and said,

I don't. I was doing it for you. But whatever, I can just walk right out of here and never..."

While Jessica was talking she had turned to face the bathroom door, and Brittney cut her off,

"No, no, wait!"

Brittney unlocked the stall door, and came out while Jessica smiled in victory.

Brittney had tears running down her face as she looked at Brittney,

"You seem nice enough, maybe you can help me forget, will you listen to my story?"

Jessica shrugged again.

"Shoot."

Then Brittney began telling the horrid details of her rape, and Jessica stood there the whole time and took it without ever changing her expression.

_It was a dark night._

_Brittney's parents had went out and left her and Tanner with a babysitter named Candy, she lived down the road from the house and she was nice enough, so the parents hired her._

_Her parents were only supposed to be gone until midnight, but things just don't work out like that when they really need to._

_Candy hadn't been quite herself that night, her boyfriend had dumped her. (She didn't tell Brittney this, she overheard Candy on the phone right after her parents had departed)_

_The three of them had been playing Yahtzee together when there was a knock on the door._

_"Who could that be at this time of night?"_

_But Brittney always thought Candy knew, deep down in her heart, she knew Candy had invited the boys over._

_At the door were two boys, Brittney's heart went cold when she saw the first one._

_Maybe it was those gray eyes that scared her, or maybe she just saw him and could read him for what he really was._

_The other boy, Brittney could never remember his first name, but she remembered the police saying his last name over and over. "Mr. Sperry."_

_The two boys cracked jokes with Candy and then invited them inside. Then Candy told Brittney to bring Tanner upstairs and get ready for bed._

_So of course Brittney agreed, taking her intuition about the gray-eyed boy and not thinking about it._

_She changed into her pajamas and walked into her bedroom, then, she walked back out and made sure Tanner was in bed before going back to her room._

_After about forty-five minutes of laying in the dark, the three of them came in her room._

_Candy was telling them to be quiet, but her words were slurring so Brittney had the idea that the three of them had gotten into dad's secret stash of alcohol._

_Candy had said,_

_"Good, your brother's already sleeping."_

_Then she motiond towards the boy with the gray eyes,_

_"Drake here has agreed to reading you a bed-time story while me and Zane go talk in private..."_

_Before Brittney could mention that she was too old for bed-time stories, Candy and her (ex-)boyfriend left the room. Candy was even giggling on her way out._

_The gray-eyed boy, Drake, was maybe two or three years older than Brittney but the didn't stop him from licking his lips at the sight of prey laying on the bed._

_"So, how about we forget the bed-time story?"_

_Brittney backed up against her bed,_

_"No...No."_

_Drake smiled and pulled out something silver and glistening, this same thing that he would pull out when he did this deed with Caine._

_"If you scream, I'll kill you."_

_And that's how the horror began, and Drake going to Coates... is how it ended._

_But how long did that last?_

Brittney smiled weakly at Jessica, who hadn't changed her expression even once throughout the story,

"Now that you know everything, what do you think I should do? To maybe, block out the memories?"

Jessica shrugged her shoulders and then said,

"I don't fucking care. I just wanted to hear the story."

And then she walked out of the bathroom, leaving Brittney to think about everything all by herself.

Jessica had a heart, but it definitely wasn't the size of the Post-Story-Grinch's.

_It's just big enough to care about one person._

She thought to herself.

_And that's me.  
_  
Jessica left the school an hour before it would even let out with a smile on her face. Maybe Jessica didn't care that much about people, but she was definitely wrong about her heart's carrying capacity, which she later found out would be two, not one.

3

Diana was sitting in the library a little after school was let out, sitting in the reading area, checking her cell phone. She definitely wasn't on the computer that day, considering what had happened to her last time she got on the library computer.

But sitting on a computer not too far away, was the girl that would later despise Diana as much as Becky did: Dekka.

Dekka was watching Diana from a distance, observing her beautiful slender legs rubbing up against each other.

Dekka didn't know Diana that well, and she didn't really care either, she just knew that girl was hot.

Dekka walked over to Diana and Diana looked up with a smile, but also a questioning look.

A look that said,

_Who are you and who sent you to beat me up?_

Dekka smiled back and sat down on the couch next to Diana, and then she said,

"Hi."

Diana smiled back and put her phone away which she had been texting on,

"Hello..."

Dekka brushed her leg and then put it over her other,

"Come here often?"

Diana gave her a strange look. Then she looked away, blushing lightly.

"I'm sorry. I don't understand what this is about."

Dekka rolled her eyes and then said,

"Calm down. I'm just trying to make some conversation."

Diana blinked once, twice, and then laughed.

"Excuse me?"

Dekka shrugged lightly and scooted her chair a bit closer to Diana's.

"I'm just trying to holler at you."

Diana's eyes got wide for a second, and then she smiled, laughed, and stood up waving her arm in front of her.

"You've got the wrong idea about me! I'm not... a uh..."

Dekka stood up.

"A what?..."

Diana stopped back ing up and put her arm down,

"I was seeing Caine."

Dekka nodded and stepped closer.

"Yeah... I'm the one who told Becky on you two."

Diana's eyes got wide again, as Dekka took another step closer.

"You what!"

Dekka smiled and said,

"I made sure Caine wouldn't get his paws around you..."

Dekka placed her hand on Diana's shoulder.

Diana shook it off and slapped the hell out of Dekka, Dekka looked taken aback, but then smiled as Diana walked out of the library to find Caine. Which she wouldn't actually get to do until around midnight because of work she still had to get done for school. But she would be sure to see Caine on her outing with Brianna tonight.

Which is what Dekka wanted her to do.

4

No matter how grown up Alfred started acting when the FAYZ came down, he was still just a kid in the end.

As a kid, his mother always made him get a babysitter, something that he thought was so stupid to have around.

Not that he had any hard feelings about Jessica (the same Jessica who made Brittney break down), he just didn't want a babysitter period.

Today he would let that be known.

"Maybe you could talk to my mom about, y'know, relocating or something."

Jessica dropped the box of macaroni she was holding down to the counter and looked up at Alfred.

"What do you mean?"

Alfred shrugged and then smiled weakly.

"Well, I don't want a babysitter anymore..."

Jessica scoffed,

"Well, I still want the money."

Alfred walked over to her.

"Get her to pay you for standing outside. You can be like the guard dog or something."

Jessica rolled her eyes and picked up the box again,

"What about when it's cold? You wanna build me an igloo?"

Alfred looked serious and Jessica pulled out the cheese powder.

"Al, you can't even make yourself a bowl of ramen noodles."

Alfred shrugged,

"Dammit Jessica! I can figure it out!"

Jessica looked down as he cursed, something Alfred didn't do very often.

"I believe you, but I still need to be here."

Alfred scoffed as she walked over to the stove.

"I don't get it. You can be all stone to people at school about how you don't care and whatnot, but then when I ASK YOU NOT TO CARE, you want to."

Jessica smiled, and didn't turn back as she said,

"I've never been good at taking demands."

5

Caine was sitting on the edge of his bed. He had sat there since he woke up. Drake had left before he was awake so he had no time to confront him about last night.

What the hell happened last night?

Why the hell had he let Drake...do that stuff?

He looked at the cut on his stomach and then back at the door. The minute Drake walked in, he would have some explaining to do.

Caine went over to the dresser and pulled out a shirt. Seeing Drake in just basketball shorts might have been a bad idea.

Just as he got the shirt on, Drake walked in.

"Hey there."

Caine turned to Drake, and walked right over to him and punched him on the nose.

_Kerrrrrrrackkkkkkkkk._

"WHAT THE FUCK DUDE?"

Drake's nose oozed blood onto the floor. Caine looked at his knuckles where blood glinted in the light and he smiled as he said,

"That was for last night you fucking fag."

Drake held his nose, and then grabbed Caine by the hair and put him in a headlock.

Caine struggled, but Drake got the best of him.

Drake got him down on the ground in the headlock, and then spoke softly into his ear, blood running down Caine's cheek and over his lips.

"Look here you fucking stupid cunt. You wanted what I gave you last night, you wanted it, therefore I delivered. Now that you've horny-sobered up, you can't go taking your fucking straight-boy anger out on me. I'm straight too, last night was a one night thing, and I swear to fucking God, I will kill you if you ever put your hands on me like that again you stupid cunt."

Drake was getting turned on, Caine was getting scared.

Drake got off of Caine and pulled him up off the floor, what he did next Caine let him do. To an unknowing eye, it may of look like Caine wanted it.

Drake kissed Caine, and the blood ran down both of their faces in fresh spurts, something Caine didn't really mind after a few seconds.

Maybe they would have had a repeat of last night, but they wouldn't.

Because just as Drake slid his tongue in Caine's mouth, Diana walked in.

**End of Chapter Four.**


	5. Chapter 5: Deathly Ramifications

Chapter Five: Deathly Ramifications  
14 DAYS. 12 HOURS.

1

Zil was in bed. Fast asleep.

He was taking in shallow breaths, not because he had any kind of breathing problems, but because of the phenomenal dream he was experiencing.

_The boy from school was standing next to him. Talking softly into his ear, leaning him up against the wall._

_"I heard you've been talking bad about me..."  
_

_Zil blushed deeply, taking in the aroma of Lance's cologne._

_"No, no, no, I wasn't I swear I would never."_

_Lance smiled and rubbed his lips against Zil's cheek._

_"I think I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson about shit-talking..."_

_Zil kissed Lance's neck and Lance moaned, oh God, he moaned._

_Zil pulled away and Lance looked down at him with a big smile, and he kissed Zil on the lips, oh God, he kissed Zil on the lips._

_Zil looked up at him,_

_"Is this real life?"_

_Lance giggled and said,_

_"Yes, David, this is real life."_

_Zil laughed as Lance kissed him again. Zil remembered the video, he had no idea why Lance had said that though. (He didn't exactly know it was a dream yet)_

_Lance held onto that kiss, and Zil kissed him back._

_Lance ran a hand up Zil's shirt and bit his neck as he did it, Zil moaned._

_Then a flash of darkness cut in._

_Zil had his eyes at slit, and continued to kiss Lance._

_Then something strange happened. Zil felt Lance's knuckles go hairy, and he felt Lance get... taller? He opened his eyes and stared at the man that had traded places with Lance. A man wearing a denim jacket and some old blue jeans along with some worn out cowboy boots. He had three buttons on his jacket, he had buttons on his jacket._

_Zil pulled away from the man and fell to the floor,_

_"Wakey wakey..."_

_The man pulled out a gun and pointed it at Zil._

_"Eggs and bakey."_

_The gun went off, and Zil _**woke up** out of his sleep with a start.

He fell to the floor, pulling his blanket down with him. His crotch was a little wet, he had no clue whether it was urine or boy fluid, and frankly, he didn't want to find out yet.

He pulled the blanket of of him and walked over to the bathroom. He was wearing his blue feety pajamas (after all, he was still a kid) and that was it.

The pajamas had teddy bears on them, and he only wore them after he was locked into his bedroom for the night. He always locked the door before he went to lay down at night.

He knew if his brother Zane ever saw them then he'd be in a bad situation, and he'd probably be made fun of.

But Zane was in a high school miles away from home.

Zil pulled his pajama pants opened and stared at his part.

It was semen alright.

He grabbed a few paper towels and did the best he can to wipe it all up, and then he went to pee.

After all that was done he turned off the light and climbed back in bed, since his bedroom and bathroom were connected, he didn't even have to go in a hallway, he got to get right back in bed after three steps from the mirror and a leap.

He fell asleep instantly, forgetting all about the nightmare/fantasy.

The next one, however, was not as easy for him.

_Zil was walking down a hallway._

_A scream._

_"HELP ME!"_

_Zil ran down the hallway, and then these green candles started lighting up. Light. Light. He ran, the walls seemed to melt, rocks took their place, big rocks._

_He ran towards the gaiaphage._

_The what?  
_

_The green crystal thing that was sitting there, and the other two people._

_Two people?_

_Yes. A man and a girl._

_ORSAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY._

_What?_

_Who was?_

_"ZIL SPERRY!"_

_The man yelled, throwing the girl to a heap on the floor. Her body just vanished as she hit the rough ground._

_"About time you joined the party!"  
_

_Zil tried to run, honestly he did, but the man grabbed him and flung him towards the crystal thing._

_Zil hit the ground and the man ran over, placing his hands on his cranium._

_"GAME TIME MY BOY!"_

_He squeezed Zil's head and pulled him up in the air._

_Images flashed all throughout his head, images that didn't make any sense. He saw Hunter... and a whole bunch of other people. There was a fire, and Astrid the Genius was running with a little blonde boy. Who was that little blonde boy?..._

_"AHH!"_

_The Dark Man screamed and threw Zil across the mine. Sending him straight for the wall. The Dark Man stood up and howled, GOD, he howled like a coyote._

_"DAMMIT!"_

_He screamed, Zil picked himself off the floor._

_"You..."_

_Zil looked up at the man, and the man was pointing at him._

_"Bring me that boy."_

_Zil tried to ask who the boy was, but the man beat him to it._

_"Bring me... Nemesis."_

_Zil did nothing but nod at the request, and the man walked over and put his hands on the boy's head._

_"Tell him that Flagg is waiting. That'll make him stir. Tell him Flagg is waiting in the mine. Tell him Flagg is going to end this little word of his... unless he comes and sees Flagg."_

_The boy nodded again, and then The Dark Man squeezed his cranium, more roughly this time._

_"BE GONE MORTAL!"_

_Somewhere far away, Zil screamed._

2

Astrid and "Nemesis" were sitting in The Genius' bedroom.

Nemesis as always was playing his little handheld video game, and Astrid was cleaning out her closet. Throwing mostly everything in the trash bag by her door.

Something stopped her dead in her throwing away process.

A little white bible was in her hand, and she was honestly too wrapped up in her own thoughts that she almost threw it right in the garbage along with all the other crap.

But she stopped.

Looking down at the Bible, caressing it's edges, dropping everything else in her hands down on the floor for later clean up.

She walked to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, looking at the small white book with the gold edging.

Astrid Post-FAYZ would have never, ever, ever, done what Astrid Pre-FAYZ did next.

But she had reasoning. Sure it was told Astrid didn't really date in her days before the FAYZ, but she did have one...

And due to their break-up, she did something unforgivable.

She threw the Bible at the wall.

It cracked open and pages flew everywhere, Pete looked up for a second, and then went right back to his video game.

"FUCK!"

She screamed. Her parents were out, and she honestly didn't care about this outburst. It had been a long time coming, and she was pissed.

"FUCK YOU TRENT!"

Why had she given that emo asshole a chance? Why had she allowed him to... to...

"GOD! FUCK YOU TRENT!"

She got in a ball on her bed, and rocked back and forth, tears running down her face.

"I hate you..."

Little Pete stood up and walked over to the Bible, setting his game down on the way.

Astrid didn't see him get up, and if she would have seen what he did next, she might have had a heart attack.

Little Pete put his hand out in front of him, and the pages of the Bible recollected themselves, putting themselves back into the Bible's binding.

The Bible jumped off the floor, and into Pete's hand. Pete smiled and then the Bible disappeared.

Pete walked back over to the game, and picked it up, then he sat down.

Just then his sister stood up to go clean up the mess, but it was gone. Gone.

She looked at Little Pete, who was enveloped in his game, then she looked back at the empty floor.

She shook her head, and then she got back to work.

3

Vice-Principal Vicky Zhang was sitting in her office.

She called her son in, he thought maybe he knew something about the Brittney girl who was in his class.

Duck came in the room and sat down, his mother looked rough, as she always did.

He looked at her, and she stared back, the crow's feet by her eyes straining her vision a bit yet she still didn't wear glasses.

"Okay. So, tell me everything you know."

So he did, Duck unloaded to his mother about what had happened earlier that week. Hank and some thugs had beat up some kids at the front of the school, and luckily Duck was there to witness it.

Now here he was, tattling, something that his mother always made him do; something that he never had any choice but to do.

"So what you're telling me is, the boy came out; Hank and his two pals saw him, and then they jumped him? There was no instigation from the boy?"

"None mom. Quinn didn't do anything."

Mrs. Zhang sighed and wrote some more information down on the papers in front of her, then she looked up.

"Okay, you can go baby."

Duck smiled and started to leave the office.

"Love you!"

His mom called,

"Love you too."

Ten minutes passed with her writing all alone. Twenty.

Then in pounced three boys. Only one would become something in the woprld known as the FAYZ, and that was the one in the center.

Hank.

Hank would be a part of the "Human Crew" in just a few months, but for now, the crew he was a part of was, "The Pit Vipers."

The Vipers were a small crew sure, but they got work done. Now here they were, 3 out of 7 of them, including their leader: trapped in the Vice-Principal's office.

"Hi VP..."

"Sit down. ALL OF YOU."

She said, standing up herself. The two boys sat down and Hank stood, since there were no more seats. He didn't jump at her sudden outburst, he crossed his arms.

"Now. I hear that you three assaulted a boy yesterday."

Hank shook his head.

"No no no. A boy instigated with us, and we tought him a lesson."

Mrs. Zhang scoffed.

"Teaching lessons is what we do here in school. Not what you boys do in the streets. And I know from a witness that Quinn did not say anything to you, different from what you said before, and that you attacked him on a whim."

Hank put his arms down.

"Not true. Not true at all."

Hank was moving, one of the boys noticed. The one who noticed was the one who had been sitting next to Jessica the day that Brittney had her outburst. His name, Harry.

Harry spoke now, distracting Mrs. Zhang from Hank's moving around.

"Quinn called me a name Mrs. Zhang, that's why we attacked him."

She scoffed again.

"What did he call you?..."

Harry smiled,

"Get her Hank."

Hank grabbed the Vice Principal and threw her to the floor, slapping her, and telling her to shut up.

Harry walked over to the door, locked it, and then came back.

The other boy in the room just watched. He was nobody important, and just watching was good... it was very very good.

They hit Mrs. Zhang a few more times, and then Hank drew out his pocket knife.

"NO!"

She screamed as the knife got her once in the stomach.

"STOP!"

She screamed for the third.

"Please..."

She muttered for the fifth.

"Ugh..."

She moaned for the ninth.

Sure she would survive this brutal stabbing, but as of now, Ouch.

The boys ran then, leaving the door ajar, not planning to ever go back to that school.

And in truth, they never had to. The games of the FAYZ were less than two weeks away.

4

"A little over thirteen days left..."

The Dark Man repeated to himself.

He was scared, honestly he was. And he felt his mind as it was about to slip into the thoughtful abyss. Click. He felt the click, he felt his mind slip from world intot he other. The Overworld. He didn't see the Ghost Town that he was just sitting in, instead he saw the desert. And worse of all, he saw a man in the desert. Who was that man? Who was he? Oh he knew who the man was. This man who was coming to stop his games before they went too far. The man who was coming to stop everything. The Man, MANNN. That was his name. Randall, err, The Dark Man was shaking, shaking, quivering, thinking about all the kids he had tainted already. Orsay. Sam. Bette. Charles. And then came the stopper, Zil. Of course that kid was troubled, of course Nemesis would pick the worse time to come out and about. Nemesis. His second most powerful rival,spiritually his first, but in all truth, his real first was far from Nemesis' games. His true first was far away, perhaps in that desert, still searching, excavating for something that he did not want found. Yeah. Probably. Probably not though. Everybody knows once the game starts, everybody wants to play. So a little appearance from old Roland wouldn't surprise him in the least bit. Bt the truth of the matter was, he really didn't want to have to fight Nemesis. Nemesis might be able to put a stop on his whole operation. The whole damn thing, he might be able to make everything stop. It aggravated him just thinking about that fucking little punk. Fuck him. Fuck him! No. Calm down Flagg. Nothing is worth getting this mad. Nothing at all is worth being this pissed. GOD. How he hated that little punk. GOD how he wanted him dead. If only that bitch wouldn't have inhabited the body of a little boy, Randall could have killed him right when he arrived. In the distance, a coyote howled.

The Dark Man snapped out of his state, and walked over to the coyotes a few feet away.

"Which one of you lead this troop?"

5

Testing, one, two, THREE.

Becky was walking along the perimeter of Coates. She had snuck out to spend some alone time with herself.

The night was a beautiful one, unlike tomorrow night, which would be the stormy sister.

She continued to walk, and then she ended up crossing the street and looking out at the water.

The breeze blowing her hair all around, something that she had wanted to experience ever since she first came to Coates.

Now here it was, ten minutes before her death, and it felt so good.

The air picked up just as the first coyote cackled behind her. She didn't hear him, she didn't hear any of the six of them, approaching her.

The Dark Man was among the coyotes, walking in the center of the pack.

There was no leader, so HE would lead it.

The Dark Man began to transform, his back getting curved and his hands and feet getting hairy. He landed on the ground, and Becky heard this, but by the time she turned around he was just another coyote, another coyote that was bigger than the rest.

He landed his teeth first, right on her jugular vein.

Ripped it out of her neck as the others pounced. FRESH MEAT.

They all thought as they pounced, landing with soft grace all around her. The others landing roughly on her body.

"HELP!"

She screamed but nobody heard. Just before she could scream again, the blood from her neck overflowed from her body, and drowned her.

About ten minutes into the feast, a man walked up.

"Hey!"

He screamed, firing a gun into the air.

All of the coyotes dispersed rapidly, except one.

The "Leader" stayed behind for a few extra seconds and got a good look at the man who had walked up.

The Dark Man almost shit himself.

**It seemed like these games were going to be more difficult than he anticipated.**

**End of Chapter Five.**


	6. Interlude: The End Is Near

**Interlude: The End Is Near**

**13 Days. 10 Hours. **

**Ένα ιντερλούδιο**

**19...**

**TIME IS RUNNING OUT.**

**"What do you mean?"**

**FLAGG IS GETTING CLOSER TO THE ANSWER, HE'S GOING TO TRAP THAT TOWN IN HIS GRASP AND YOU HAVE JUST ARRIVED.**

**"I'll stop him Wise Man. I promise."**

**DOUBTFUL! **

**"Wise Man. I SWEAR!"**

**Ανόητος!****Μην υψώνετε τη φωνή σας μαζί μου! Θα σας κτυπώ γρηγορότερα από****Αστραπή! ****Αποκτώ για το έργο!**

**"Sir. I am sorry for raising my voice."**

**AS AM I, Αγάπη.**

_The man nods and steps back, away from the throne of a man in a black robe._

**"I will stop him my liege."**

**Τότε ας την έναρξη των αγώνων.**

_The Wise Man smiles, and the man steps back._

**NOW, BACK TO OVERWORLD, DO NOT DISAPPOINT ME!**

_A huge blinding flash of light. The man puts his hands to his eyes, and waits it out. Loud ringing in his ears as he is teleported to a different world, a different place than his own. The light finally cleared. The man was now standing where he had encountered the coyote pack. He knew the big one was The Dark Man, but he was not yet ready to admit it. In all truth, he wasn't ready to face him yet. Sure he was okay with seeing him, but a fight might be more than he bargained for. A fight against him may not be that bad, but he sure as hell wasn't ready. Not after what he had done to all of his friends all those years ago._

_Memories flashed._

_"I love you..."_

_"Yeah, you're just being dramatic." _

_"Wake up!"_

_"Help!"_

_"His throat was... oh God"_

_"Hello children. You can call me Scratch."_

_He grabbed at his forehead._

**"Face your fears. Face your fears, dammit ****Γάδοςy!"**

_The Greek was back. The damn Greek._

_His mind was jumbing it all up again. It was because of those nights._

_THOSE NIGHTS._

_He missed those nights with... in? London?_

_Those final nights. Terrible. Terrible._

_He had to find __**Τo**__** Κακιά γυναίκα**__. _

**...19**

**"I'll find you Flagg. I'll find you, then I'll find her. After that, I'll find your fucking KING."**

**FIND NEMESIS FIRST**

**"Right. Nemesis. The Trapped One."**

_He only came into contact with Nemesis once before, and when that happened he was a lot more lively. And a lot taller as well._

_But now was not the time to think about this. He had to handle The Dark Man for Roland and The Wise Man. _

_The man holstered his gun and continued down the road towards the nuclear power plant._

The Brain-Wave Transmission Cuts Out Here.

Another Begins.

_**Ανοίξτε το μυαλό σας. **_

**TIME IS RUNNING OUT.**

**"You know I don't speak that Latin shit."**

**Ανεμιστήραg. YOU KNOW BETTER THAN TO USE THAT TONGUE WITH ME!  
**

**"I'm not afraid of you anymore. You can't touch me, she made sure of it."**

_The Wise Man smiled while sitting in his throne._

**Κατ 'ανώτατο όριο. HOW I MISS HER SO.**

**"You hated her."**

**JUST AS WELL, YOU WILL BACK UP Γάδοςy IN THIS ORDEAL.**

**"What about the others? We're 19, not 2."**

**I HAVE TO STAY HERE AND THE OTHER SIXTEEN ARE ALL BUSY ON OTHER SIDES OF THE WORLD.**

**"Whatever old man. You'll get yours, especially after all the sneaky shit you're trying to pull."**

**SO YOU SAY.**

**"Just you fucking wait. At _Endgame_, the shit will all hit the fan."**

**I NEVER KNEW YOU SPOKE SO MUCH Ανεμιστήραg, I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO HEAR YOUR VOICE UNTIL AFTER THE KING ROBBED Κατ 'ανώτατο όριο OF HER THROAT!**

**"You take that back you old FUCK!"**

_The man runs towards The Wise Man and The Wise Man sends a blast towards him, sending him flying towards the big golden double doors on the other side of the room._

**"Fuck. You."**

**TIME FOR YOU TO GET GOING**

_A huge blinding flash of light. The man puts his hands to his eyes, and waits it out. Loud ringing in his ears as he is teleported to a different world, a different place than his own. _

_The sun was just coming up to the east, and the man looked around for his partner. In the distance was a power plant, behind that was his partner, behind his parter was Perdido Beach._

_But the man didn't know that._

_He walked in the direction of the power plant, he always had a great sense of direction and he felt like that was the place to be. If old Johnny was right, then the power plant would be the center. That was all cool considering it's location and height, and it would give The 19 a perfect place to finish up the plans for Endgame._

_He didn't have time to think about Endgame, he just needed to make sense of it all._

_John._

_And... Himself._

_There's Cody..._

_The other sixteen, could they get the job done?_

_The Leader, Roland, could he accomplish everything he promised?_

_The man sure hoped so._

_He continued to walk, and finally saw his partner's outline in the far distance. What he did next, was something out of a sci-fi movie._

_The man jumped in the air and wings tore out from his back, he flew over to the man. Flew, like an angel, and landed in front of him._

_**"... **_**Ανεμιστήραg"**

**"Cody."**

**"It's good to see you again, after... the war."**

**"Do you know how many survived?"**

**"All 600 of the combatanants died. The 19 of us survived, and the Nefarious 7 survived as well... unfortunately."**

**"Very unfortunate indeed, but, that's life. So, Cody, what did Johnny tell you?"**

**"I need to stop Flagg. As soon as possible."**

**"Hmph. He told me to find Nemesis."**

**"Wow, come to think of it, I haven't seen Nemesis since the war either."**

**"Good old Nemesis. Did his disappearing act on The 19. No postcard or anything."**

**"Shut up Ανεμιστήραg."**

**"Not a way to talk to your partner..."**

_A silent pause as Ανεμιστήραg looks out at the ocean, and then turns around to face Cody._

**"Sorry for your brother..."**

**"Pfft. That's random. My brother died ten years ago."**

**"Hey. I just found out."**

_Cody nods._

**"Well, I accept your sympathy Fang."**

The Brain-Wave Transmission Cuts Out Here.

Another Begins.

_John, aka, The Wise Man, was sitting in his throne still._

_He hadn't moved since he sent Fang out to the overworld, it always took a whole bunch of energy out of him, and now that he was done, he felt way better._

_The 19 guide us. _

_That's the lie that John fed into the people of the Underworld's head._

_In all truth, The 19 were a bunch of bad folks who think they're getting some pay out for being good now. Well, maybe not bad people, but bad decision makers._

_That was why they were in the Underworld._

_But The Nefarious 7 were no better, they just weren't up for giving up there lives after coming evil this far in. And in all truth, The 19 had bones to pick with The N7. _

_John coughed._

_If things didn't go right under this dome then he didn't know what would happen next. He was almost positive his boys wouldn't be able to stop Flagg but it was worth a try._

_John leaned back on his throne and closed his eyes._

_Endgame was so soon... and he wasn't ready to die again._

_Nobody wanted to end up in... Otherworld._

_Nobody._

**End of Interlude 1. **


	7. Chapter 6: Isolated

Chapter Six: Isolated  
13 DAYS. 6 HOURS.

1

The situation was getting worse in Perdido Beach. A news crew was sitting outside of the school, as well as an ambulance.

A woman with dark brown hair was talking into a camera; LIVE FROM CHANNEL 6 was scribed on the side of it.

Victoria Zhang had been brutally stabbed to death by an unknown assailant and her body was found in her office, face down in a cup of spilled coffee.

The doctors didn't even have to get her out of her office before being able to identify the state of the body.

Several teachers were crying and the secretary who had found her was babbling to the police about everything she noticed in the room.

Unlike everybody else, Duck was silent.

He wasn't crying nor was he talking to the police about the death of his mother.

He was sitting in the library reading a book on the human mind, noticeably unchanged by the death of his only living family member.

He was sitting alone, and the farthest thing from his mind coincidentally was the death of his mother.

Well, maybe that would be what an outsider looking in would think due to the boys' almost calm sense of being. He turned a page in his book and for a mere second the silence of the library was pierced, then, just as soon as it had went, the silence returned.

All of the students couldn't stick around due to Ms. Zhang's death, and the teachers were either talking to the police or in the mourning faculty meeting. Nobody had the heart to tell Duck that he needed to go home.

Even if the boy left and went home, where was home exactly?

Where would he be able to go now that both of his parents had passed away?

He would have no place to call his own, in fact he would most likely have to move in with his Aunt Jenny and stay with her.

He hated that woman though, despised her for everything she does and hating her for her rudeness and the way she acted towards him. He especially hated her good for nothing 16-year-old son Robbie. Every chance he got he would make fun of Duck, something that he was used to of course, but it still hurt since it was delivered by a family member.

Just as Duck had these thoughts, Jenny walked into the library with a man. Special Agent Peter Strahm was working to make sure all of the strange things happening in Perdido Beach stopped happening. The dead girl attacked by Coates Academy and now this.

"So, he'll stay with you for a little while and we'll come see about moving him away sometime later on this year."

Jenny nodded, "That's fine sir. He's always welcome to stay with us, he is family."

Strahm nods and then walks out, Jenny walks over to Duck and puts her hand on his shoulder, "You'll be coming home with me. Remember what happens when you get to come to your old Aunt Jenny's house."

Duck doesn't make eye contact with her, and instead turns to the next page of his book. She slaps it out of his hand and grabs him by the collar.

"Look you little bitch, I don't care if you're mommy did die, I'm still the boss of you. You understand?"

Duck and his Aunt had a terrible history, and it seems like the normal routine of him being the Cinderella of that house for his Aunt and cousin was going to come right back into effect.

2

Howard was walking alone in an alleyway, walking towards the McDonalds in the distance, the only thing currently on his mind being grabbing a bite to eat.

Before the FAYZ Howard wasn't exactly the popular cool cat that came to be directly after his presence, instead he was just a normal guy trying to make ends meet.

He wanted to make a change in the world one day, which was something that Howard knew and accepted as fact.

But he didn't know how he would make the change. Perhaps he would end world hunger, or-or, start a revolution. Ha. Probably not.

He was passing Sam's house. Old bus boy Sam, he sure knew how to save a crowd right? That story actually wasn't as heroic as it may have sounded.

Sam was sitting at the front of the bus like always when the bus had his attack. Everyone started freaking out and screaming and Sam was the only one not talking. Someone yelled, "Dude, somebody has to take the wheel," so Howard sprung out of his chair and began running to the front, finally about to make a mark on the history of mankind; but just then Sam jumped up and began to drive the bus. Howard never forgot that, and he never would.

It was kind of one of those things people shouldn't get mad about; like a baby puppy peeing when you pick it up, but it really pissed Howard off.

He should have been the hero, and you want to know something? He still wanted revenge.

And he would get it.

3

He sat on his bed, cold, falling apart, having no idea what to do next, and no idea what to think. He sniffles and then lies down, tired of his back complaining about the way he had been sitting. He couldn't get Sam off his mind, and that made him so mad. Sam just kept popping up; every time he even got close to thinking about something else there was Sam again in his trunks with his surfboard. Was Quinn gay? He didn't want to be, he just couldn't be…

Quinn knew what he had to do.

He sprung out of bed and ran towards the front door, he would go down to the beach and sit down for a while to clear his mind…

That was his plan, honest to God, he would have done just that. Had Sam not have been at the door, and maybe he still would have done it if his parents wouldn't have went out to the movies earlier that night.

"Sam…"

He said with a start, Sam stepped forward and shut the door, kissing Quinn deeply on the lips, not letting him speak as he ran his tongue into Quinn's mouth.

Quinn fights his way off and stares at Sam with his back on the wall.

"This isn't me dammit. I don't want to be like this."

"Quinn. Calm down… We both like it, we're best friends, and nobody's going to judge us."

"God will judge us."

Sam throws his arms up.

"Bullshit Quinn. You know how I feel about God!"

"Sam, I just don't want to do this."

"Tell me you don't like this."

Sam kisses Quinn with intense passion and pulls his body close to him, letting his tongue go deep into Quinn's mouth exploring every crevice.

"I don't!"

Quinn pulls away.

"Sam. Get-get out of my h-house."

"No."

4

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

Caine runs over to Diana, trying to grab her and get her to be quiet.

"It's not what it looks like babe. We-we were just trying something new."

"Caine. What the hell is this? What the hell are you two TRYING?"

"I, can't explain it baby, just trust me, we're just messing around."

Diana pulls away and edges towards the door, Drake runs up and slams it behind her.

"What did you see!"

He roars, grabbing Diana roughly and spinning her towards him. She cries out and tries to break free to no avail, and he spits as he yells.

"Look you little bitch! You better not tell anyone what you saw! You hear me!"

Diana nods, and Caine begins to pace.

5

"What do you mean no?"

Sam stepped closer to him.

"I'm not leaving. I love you Quinn."

6

"Let me go you crazy bastard!"

Drake looks back at Caine, now holding Diana by the throat.

"Can we trust her?"

"I don't know. But this will ruin my reputation…"

"Should we kill her?"

Caine looks at Drake with wide eyes, and then puts his hand to his chin.

"What will we do with the body?..."

Drake looks at Caine and smiles, and Diana begins to fight him even more.

7

Sam grabs Quinn and forcefully kisses him again.

"Please Sam, stop."

Sam picks Quinn up and slams him on the couch, kissing him more and unbuttoning his pants.

"I love you Quinn…"

Quinn moans and then looks at Sam.

"I… I love you too…"

Sam smiles and kisses Quinn again, this time his kiss is returned gleefully.

8

Screaming is heard as Diana is thrown into a hole.

"Bury her?"

Drake nods and shovels dirt into the hole.

"Alive."

Diana's screaming is quieted as the two boys smile. Rain begins to fall as the hole is closed up, and Caine grabs Drake's hand.

"This is crazy, but it's turned me on…"

Drake smiles and kisses Caine, and then the two walk away from the place where Diana was breathing shallow muddy breathes.

_The final noise other than the rain was the sound of a coyote howling, and then the clawing of an animal digging._

**End of Chapter…  
****STOP.**

**The coyote looked up from its place of digging at the figure in the sky.**

**"NEMESIS!"**

**A young boy lands on the ground, hands up in the air. A glowing ball of light appears in his hand and he fires at the coyote. The coyote dodges him and then runs towards the boy.**

**The boy fires again and the coyote is smacked in the rib cage with the light.**

**The coyote shapes into a man, a man in a denim jacket, and a man with buttons on his shirt.**

**The Dark Man.**

_Fool._

The Dark Man grabs at his head.

"Get out of my head!

_No. You're in my city, and I want you out._

"Reckoning is here Nemesis. The King wants you destroyed."

_Good fucking luck. You and your King can suck my…_

"STOP IT! Get out of my head you stupid bitch!"

Nemesis raises his hands and smiles.

_Time for you to die Randall._

"NEVER!"

Randall spawns a blue ball in his hand, and Nemesis does the same just with a yellow ball. The two fire at each other and hold the powers in one giant force. The two use all their energy, lighting up the entire field behind Coates Academy.

"DIE!"

The two go up in flames, and the bodies… disappear.

**End of Chapter 6.**


	8. Chapter 7: Resurrection

Chapter 7: Resurrection  
11 DAYS. 19 HOURS.

1

Astrid was not feeling her best.

Fuck.

She wasn't feeling good at all, in fact, she was feeling the farthest from God she had ever felt.

What was wrong? Little Pete. Missing.

Gone Baby Gone.  
Her parents were going to kill her, slaughter her.

As soon as they were awake that is.  
"Shit."

She searched his room again, quietly calling out to him, finding nothing, nobody.

She crept over to her parents' room and peaked inside, perhaps Pete had snuck into their room last night and decided to make himself comfortable, even though Astrid knew that wasn't the least bit likely. Not even in the slightest.

She peaked into their room and what she saw was terrifying.

The bed was empty. Blanket thrown on the floor, pillows scattered.

But that wasn't really the scary part.

The scary part was the eyes.

The damn eyes.

1.25

Breathing, slowly.

Trying to grasp the situation at hand.  
_Randall.  
_The voice of that brat, no not the voice.

He was hearing the brain waves of The One in his head.  
Randall was hearing the brain waves of The One in his head.

_Randall._

None of this made sense.  
He was here to plant the darkness and leave.  
He was to plant the darkness and then flee.

Flee back to the other world. Back to Overworld.

_RANDALL._

That voice. That sound.  
Damn it made him quiver.

He was in shock, he knew that now.

That little shit, "Little Pete" had killed him.  
And this was Hell.

_Open Your Mind._

Expansion to the highest. Expansion towards the master. That's what was needed if he were going to survive. He would have to somehow contact The King.

_Open Your Eyes._

Randall did as the voice said, but the darkness did not go away.  
It was still dark, everywhere.

Everywhere.  
The cold darkness was every…

Randall slid down to the floor, his hands still trying to grip the rocky walls.

Rocky walls?  
WAIT.

A cave.  
The cave.

He looks around trying to find the mouth of the cave, and he only finds.  
The eyes.  
Not The Green Eyes.

No.

The Yellow Eyes.

1.50

Astrid ran towards the door.

"HELP ME!"  
She screamed throughout her empty house.

"PLEASE!"

She heard the monster behind her, gaining quickly as it slammed against the walls of her house. The monster with The Green Eyes.

She ran past the kitchen, cutting her arm flesh on the sharp edge of a counter.

The pain was so vivid, as the **Crimson** flooded out of her wound.

The Green Eyed Monster was gaining fast, and Astrid suddenly found herself drowsy as she got closer to the door. She opened the door, only to find her house floating thousands of feet over the tiny city of Perdido Beach.

She began to turn around, and then the monster.

Oh God, the monster was right there.  
Out of fear she fell backwards.

And then… darkness.

1.75

"FUCK YOU PETE"  
_QUIET RANDALL!_

"FUCK! PLEASE! I DON'T WANNA DIE!"  
_**WELCOME TO HELL.**_

2

Sam curled up on his bed, just thinking about the day that had passed before him.

He didn't really know what to think, he ached, his heart anyway.

These feelings were unmistakable. There was no doubt in Sam's mind that his feelings for Quinn were absolutely the strongest thing he had even came close to feeling in the longest time. He was in love, so he thought, but the bad thing was, he loved Quinn even when he wasn't all locked up because of his hormones. He loved Quinn without being horny, that's what showed him the feelings he had were real.

He sat there, looking up at the ceiling.

Feeling those emotions, and then he began to let his hand roam as his thoughts took a new path.

He was sitting in his boxers, they hung loosely on his body, and he easily pushed his hand through the waistband, and over his part.

He moaned in ecstasy and rolled his hand over it. Thinking of the lust.

_He grabbed Quinn on his hips and t__hrusted his body towards him, straddling Quinn as they lovingly kissed each other's lips, the sweat and sloppy kisses mixed in with ravaging bites and the sweat of Sam's palm as it ran up the length of Quinn's bare back. As Sam pushed his hand forward, Qui__nn moaned, maybe in acceptance, or maybe his body's last effort to escape Sam. It didn't matter now, Quinn had fallen into the lust, succumb to the need of Sam's touch as Sam sucked Quinn's tuck in a sensual manner. Quinn moaned again, his hips literally p__inned to Sam's lower stomach, steaming, wanting him to release the demon that hid a bit lower._

Sam moaned aloud, bending his knees as he stroked his glory, feeling it harden over his grip, moaning harder, louder as he continued.

_It was so hot. So passion__ate; the feeling of having Quinn need him as he worked Quinn out of his shirt. Sam bit down on Quinn's nipple and twisted it in his mouth; Quinn bucked and screamed, humping Sam's body four times before calming back down. Sam then ran his hand down Quinn's__ bare body and over his crotch, rubbing seductively at the prize that waited. It was at that moment that Quinn lifted his upper body towards Sam and whispered, "Suck me up."_

Sam burst. All over the blanket. Drops splattered on the wall. The load that was meant for Quinn the night before finally came to being.

Sam lay there, in his own filth, not thinking, not caring about being walked in on. Boxers to his thighs, the liquid covering his stomach, neck, blanket, and wall. But he didn't care.

He fell asleep in it.

3

Quinn was thinking about Sam as well, but Quinn was crying.

His head was swimming with emotions, emotions he decided to dull with the vodka he found in his father's study.

He was nowhere near as passionate as Sam was when it came to the things he was feeling. Quinn had never masturbated, and he wasn't about to start now. It would just make him feel more alone, more without Sam.  
NO DAMMIT.

Not without Sam.

Fuck.

He cried more. He didn't want this shit.

He wanted to be in love with a girl. Like Astrid the Genius. Yeah, she would be perfect. He could be perfectly happy with her, and then he wouldn't have to kill himself thinking about being with Sam.

No.

He wanted Sam. He needed Sam.  
Quinn left the house.

Quinn began to run, run where he had no idea.

He just ran, not thinking ahead, but the direction of his mad sprint was clear.  
The thing that wasn't clear was who was following him.

He didn't think about it at first, he figured he would just continue running and eventually whoever it was would stop, but instead, he was tackled.

They tumbled around, and Quinn's assailant was on top, he held him down.

"Give me your wallet!"

Quinn cried out, the assailant punched Quinn in the mouth.

"HEY! GET OFF HIM!"

The man punched Quinn again as a second dark figure ran up and punched the man on top of him, the man went sprawling, and the second dark figure kicked him in the side after jumping over Quinn. The world was dark for Quinn for a few seconds, but color began to come back in as the taste of crimson on his lips began to subside.

"Quinn? Quinn is that you?"

Quinn rolled over, hardly being able to make out Howard's head.

"Hey… I know you."

"Ha, yeah you do. What are you doing out here man? It's late."

He began to help Quinn up, but Quinn was dizzy from the second punch from the assailant, the one that caught him on the side of the head.

"Ow. My head. How…"  
He was going to say Howard, but he could barely talk.

Howard helped him over to the wall, leaning him against it.

He began to talk, and the helpless Quinn tried to listen.

"I saw you, and Sammy. The other night."

Quinn heard that okay, but his ears were ringing.

"It was quite the sight, I didn't mean to see what I saw, but after I caught the beginning I had a good feel of where you guys were headed."

The ringing was beginning to subside, now all Quinn could hear was the thumping of his heart.

"That's crazy. That you and Sam, would ever… you know."

Quinn was about to speak, but he got cut off.

"I'll be sure to keep it a secret, as long as you let me get a little cut of the action."

Howard's lips pressed against Quinn's.

And Quinn fainted.

4

Caine and Drake were in bed. Naked. The stench of sex was strong in the room.

Drake liked the time he was having with Caine. The darkness in his mind couldn't seem to get itself away from thinking about Diana though. So he thought he might as well bring it up.

"You think she's dead?"

Caine scoffs, the mere fact that Drake seemed to care about the life of Diana seemed to amuse him, he rolls over and sits up, his legs swinging off the side of the twin bed that he and Drake had shared for the past few nights.

"Yes. She's been underground for a day. I doubt she's alive."

Caine get up off the bed and pulls his underwear on, they snagged on him as they went up past his hip bone. Hickeys lined themselves along Caine's pale body; the bite marks swelled on it as well. Drake and his own sex life together have proved to be quite busy, they had even skipped classes all day to remain in bed together. But all he felt towards Drake was sexual drive; even Drake couldn't possibly hold anymore emotions towards Caine.

As if to answer this very thought, Drake was suddenly behind Caine, wrapping his arms around him and pushing his hands into Caine's underwear, pulling on Caine's private area. Caine moaned and turned himself towards Drake, pulling on Drake's own private to equal things out. Drake bit Caine's bottom lip softly, and Caine kissed Drake in return, the wetness of the kiss making Caine grow in Drake's hand as Drake pulled faster. Caine was enveloped in passion and stopped touching Drake's private as Drake started to bite Caine's already bruised neck forcefully, causing Caine to moan loudly, something that made Drake so horny. Caine yelped and whined against Drake, who began to lose himself to the sounds, pounding Caine's private roughly as Caine released for the eighth time in the past day, and Drake followed suit and busted all over Caine.

"Yeesh."  
Caine pulled his underwear back up and kissed Drake, then smiled.

"I'm going to go shower. I'll be back."

Drake sat down on the foot of the bed. He looked over at the other bed, the one that hadn't been touched in awhile now, the one that he wouldn't be returning to for awhile.

But he had to be sure Diana was dead.  
Something about that bitch worried him.

Drake walked outside, heading towards the place where Caine had buried the body. He found the dirt mound, and located the shovel that they had left behind. He pondered for a second, wondering if digging her up would truly silence the things he felt. Sure they would.

If he could just make sure she was dead, he would feel a lot better. He didn't need his little bit of reputation left at Coates to go down the drain, sending him somewhere worse, like prison.

He was about to dig her up when a voice came from behind him.

"Drake. What are you doing?"

5

Caine didn't go take a shower like he told Drake. Instead he decided to sit outside of the shower stalls, thinking, wearing only his underwear.

He hadn't even grabbed clothes on the way out of the bedroom; Drake must have been oblivious since he didn't realize that. Caine could only think about Diana, slowly rotting away in the ground.

He had a crush on her. That was true. A huge crush.

This thing with Drake, it had to stop. It wasn't right, and it was starting to wear off.

Caine stood. He had to get Diana out of that hole. She had to still be alive, and if she was then she would know what to do to get him out of this situation. But…

What if she didn't know?  
What if she decided to tell the adults at Coates Academy that they had dug her a hole and buried her alive? What then? Expulsion?

Worse than expulsion, they would go to jail.  
He had no choice, he had to get her out of there, she could already be dead.

Caine ran back to the room, he would get dressed and explain to Drake that he was going to go jogging before he got in shower…

But Drake wasn't in the bedroom… which could only mean…

"Oh God."

6

The night air was cool. The Dark Man was lying in the dirt, defeated. The dirt was all over him, making him invisible to the naked eye, camouflaging him in its filthy earthy grain.

He shook the dirt off of him. How long had it been? Days, weeks? Not weeks. If it had been weeks then he would have failed. Nemesis had to be close. But in this darkness all he could see was…

There. About thirty meters away, a boy was standing with a shovel.

Another boy was directly behind him, the boy with the shovel turned to face him and they…

Did they kiss?

The Dark Man rubbed his hands together and burned the dirt off, then he rubbed the dirt off his face and eyelids so he could get a better look at what he was seeing.

He stood, and he aimed his hands at the boys.  
They would be perfect surrogates of darkness.

The one on the left, the one with the shovel the bigger of the two, he seeped into his mind first. The boy didn't fight him, he didn't even notice he was there. He got in deep, touching all over his mind, running his power deep into Drake's very flesh. He began work on one arm, making it extremely powerful, but he had to stop, not being able to get to the other arm because he didn't know how much time he had. So he went to the other boy and dug deep into the boy's soul.

The boy fought back a bit but then gave in to the darkness, Randall was pleased to give the boy an extreme dripping of his own power, he wished he had been able to give Drake this much. After dipping far into Caine, he went back to Drake, fortifying the arm, knowing that one day the strength of that arm would show to be very useful.

Then The Dark Man disappeared, off to Perdido Beach to find Nemesis.

7

"Caine, baby. I was seeing if she was dead. I got scared."

"You, scared?" Caine kisses him, trying to grab for the shovel, Drake pulls it back.

"What are you doing?"

"I came out here to stop you. Just leave her be."

Drake felt something on him, he couldn't quite shake the feeling at first, but then it seemed to fade away, it was still there, but it faded.

"I have to see."

Drake began to dig the hole, Caine tried to stop him but Drake batted him back, the strength in his arms impressing him as Caine stepped back a few feet.

"Wait. Drake."

Now Caine felt something. It kind of hurt.

"Ow."  
Drake stopped.

"What? I barely touched you."  
"Not that you idiot."

Drake seemed a bit stung.

"Ouch. What the fuck?"

Caine's body was on fire.

"Caine. What is it?"

Caine falls. He begins to touch all over his body, seeming to be patting himself.

"WHAT IS THIS!"

Caine begins to scream, Drake starts to look around, getting wary.

Then the pain disappears from Caine, and Drake's arm begins to itch again.

"Come on. Get up. Let's just get out of here, before anyone shows up."

Caine struggles to his feet and Drake helps him walk away, the grave of Diana looming in the background.

8

_Wake Up._

The dirt was everywhere, it was hot all over. Sweat, damp sweat made dirty clumps on her body. She couldn't shake the feeling of bugs all over her body.

Bugs. They were everywhere. She was sure of it.

_Alan._

Who? Who was Alan? Where was she?  
What is this?

_Diana!_

A man's voice, sounding far off. But feeling close.

Rumbling, the Earth around her shaking as she tried to figure out where she was.

Diana. Diana.  
That's WHO she was. But WHERE was she?

Caine. Drake.

They did this.

How could she have forgotten so soon?

They had buried her alive. Or maybe she was already dead. Maybe this was Hell. Maybe the feeling of hundreds of bugs against your skin and the knowledge of not being able to move around in a muddy pit was Hell.

She felt water.

Maybe this wasn't Hell.

Maybe she was somehow alive.

9

The Dark Man watched the two boys retreat back to the school. What was it that they had been looking at? What was the shovel for?

He walked over to the dirt mound and got on his knees. He had seen this several times before, someone was alive down there. But how long had it been since they were buried?

And why didn't they just dig their way out?

"She was weak. She must not have been able to fight her assailants."

Assailants.  
The boys.

He had given them both so much power.  
He would have to save this girl.

If this heart he was feeling, if this girl could survive being underground for who knows how long, then she must be strong, mentally.

So he would give her a mental ability.

He put his palms into the dirt, he could feel the energy seeping off his fingertips and into the dirt, he even gave her some of that energy so she would be able to get out of the dirt.

Yes, The Dark Man was actually saving someone. But perhaps saving this girl would prove to be a good decision later on down the line.

Rain fell. Maybe he had caused it. It was the second to last storm that this area of California would see in a long time. The next time it rained would be the day before the dome, and the time after that would be from the power of Nemesis. But The Dark Man didn't know that.

The Dark Man stood, and he jumped up and down on the heavy dirt, as to loosen it around Diana's body. And then, he walked back towards Perdido Beach.

Only one more thing had to be done.

10

Diana felt the Earth shake around her, and the shaking brought her fully back to consciousness.

Something in the back of her mind told her to go to sleep, just to sleep and never wake up again, that last bit of consciousness would prove to be the Light and not the Dark.

But for this battle, the Darkness won.

Diana pulled at the dirt around her, the rain falling from the sky made it easy to pull free. Diana clawed through the dirt, as it seemed to rumble around her, fighting to the top.

The rumbling ceased. And Diana could feel something.

Someone.

Walking away from her "grave".

She reached forward and her hand felt something metal.

She began to caress the sides of it, pulling it to her, pulling her body up through the dirt and back towards the surface of the Earth.

Dirt clumped on her sides, tears streamed down her soaked, muddy face.

She screamed, reaching for the top.

Pure ecstasy flooded through her as her hand felt the rain.

She screamed again, digging herself out of what now was beginning to feel a lot like quicksand as the muddy loose dirt fell into itself.

"**FUCK!"**  
She screamed, pulling herself from the hole.

Diana was free.  
Free, with a mission.

_Revenge._

**End of Chapter 7.**


	9. Chapter 8: Damnation

Chapter 8: Damnation  
11 DAYS. 12 HOURS.

1

The agony was fresh in his mind and field of vision, he could feel the pain of the girl who was rising from the soil in the ground behind the infamous Coates Academy. He could feel her soul being lost in the wind, forever departing from her modern body, forever leaving what she had left in the shell that was her body. But Nemesis could do nothing to stop her. Nemesis could do nothing to stop the Dark Man from poisoning what was left of her. He had given her a power, at this time it was unbeknownst to him but soon it would be clear as day.

But he was a lot more interested in something else right now. He was floating above his house, and his house was in fact floating above the ground. They were high in the sky, he and Astrid, and he wondered to himself if Astrid had awoken.

Everything at this moment was a blur. He could feel Roland and Randall both wandering in the wilderness, and until the night crumbled the illusion of the floating house would have to stay. It was the only choice he had to stay safe.

Randall could not reach into his bubble, and if his current intuition was correct, he could feel Cody and Fang not too far away. Which meant that the 19 were all watching, meaning the Seven were all close.

But none of this was making sense to his adolescent mind right then. Not that his mind was adolescent but because just none of this shit made any fucking sense. He missed Alice, and Barry, and his old body before The Darkness controlled him. But now he was here, stuck as a little boy in California as his poor wife rotted in Washington.

FUCK THIS SHIT.

The world around him vibrated, as he screamed. The true power of his knowledge was beginning to seep from his pores, beginning to change the environment around him as his anger grew.

He didn't ask for any of this shit. It was handed to him. Not he was just pissed off, cold, and tired. He wished he had never left his place in New York, he wished he'd never taken advantage of the woman he loved. He wished he'd never taken over the place of a poor autistic boy.

The Earth rumbled again.  
The Dark Man was close.

The battle was about to begin.

2

"What do you want from me?"

Quinn asked, scared of the answer that Howard might present. The kiss had caught him off guard, it had been the thing that he expected the least from a guy like Howard.

"I told you what I want. I want a slice, of the action…"

He walked towards Quinn, who backed up against the alley wall and dodged away from him, which seemed to upset him greatly.

"I don't understand why you let a guy like Sam all over you when he's never done anything for you, and yet I save your life and you don't want to even give me a little bit of what Sam got."

Quinn pouted and then spoke softly,

"I'm in love with…"

"In love? FOR WHAT? What has he done to make him love you?"

"Why are you getting so angry…"  
"Damn it Quinn!"

He grabbed Quinn and pinned him against the wall, looking into his bright eyes, the suffering in Quinn's soul was beginning to slowly peak out at him and he felt the slightest bit of guilt and softly released him from his grip.

"Tell me why you love him."

Quinn closed his eyes for a short amount of time and then sighed.

"I just do okay? I don't understand why either."

Howard nodded and then smiled. Then he giggled softly to himself and took a few steps back.

"You know what. Forget this ever happened."

"But…"

Howard angrily slammed his hand against the wall next to Quinn and got up close and personal.

"NO! YOU STUPID MOTHER FUCKER. I SAID FORGET THIS HAPPENED. YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Quinn was quiet, whining softly to himself.

Howard did the unthinkable then. Howard slapped him.  
Quinn fell to the ground, not fighting, not making a noise besides a low grunt.

"Do you understand me you piece of shit? I never saw you today!"

Quinn nodded, and Howard kicked him in the stomach.

"Bitch."  
Quinn didn't move until the sound of Howard's footsteps were no longer there.

3

_Answer me. _

The silence fell in the room and nothing replied to Orsay's calls.  
_Answer me._

Silence again, she was calling out to the thing that had touched her mind. The Gaiaphage. But to no avail, she hugged her legs close, fast asleep but still wide awake.

Orsay was in bed asleep.  
But she was also sitting in a chair awake.

One was reality, and one was a dream.  
But both were relevant.

She had contacted him before while asleep, so she had to do it again while she was asleep. That was the most logical thing that she could think of, and would prove to be correct.

A woman walked into the room, she had olive skin and green eyes, and she walked directly up to Orsay and smiled. Her hair was long and flowed like silk, the edges of her mouth creaked up in a wicked sense, but at the same time seemed pleasing to look at.

"Hello my dear."

Orsay stood up, bringing herself to stand at the exact same height as the seductress and famous walker of the lands, Alice, or as she is better known to the likes of you, Nerezza.

"Are you the dark one? The Gay-a… Guy-a…"

"The Gaiaphage. No sweetheart. I am but a messenger. A mere gram off the table of hard rocks. But be warned, sniff me the wrong way and you will find death."

"I don't understand."

She began to circle around the room, looking around the bedroom that Orsay had come familiar with, the one that she would not see again for a very long time.

"Do not strain yourself my love. Your father will assure that you are safe through this all."

"My father is asleep…"

"Your true father. The one…" She points to the ceiling, "Above."

Orsay looked confused until the one whom the olive lady spoke of began to dawn on her. The one she spoke of was the same one her guardians always spoke of, the one that they had called God and had tapped the book on the nightstand about, and prayed to when they were too drunk to think about whatever it was that kept them up at night.

That man, the listening man, the one who was always listening listening listening  
Orsay was beginning to lose her grip on what had come to be known to her as the Dream World.  
Or as she had once heard on TV; The Further.

"I want to speak to him again, I want to help him."

Orsay really meant what she was saying and Nerezza turned to face her and smile, her teeth a perfectly clean white smile, to match with the purity of the shadow she was casting.

"Say his name child."

Orsay licked her dry lips, but unfortunately the nervousness that would be brought about would only usually be seen in real life. For some reason her nervousness was peeking into her subconscious, making her lick her lips even in her dreams.

"God…"

Nerezza howled with laughter and gripped her side.

"No you pretentious little child. Not God! Say his name!"

Orsay was confused for maybe a mere second, but then the light pierced her brain and the answer that Nerezza was searching for came to her tiny mind.

"The Gaiaphage."

And then, darkness.

4

"You wanna know a big secret? I don't give a fuck."

The man turned in his chair, facing away from the woman sitting on the other side of his desk. He looked out his window, the same window that a poor boy would try to bust out of when a young wetback named Edilio locked him in this very room to die only a few months in the future. But the man in the chair with his hair slicked back and a suit on didn't seem to care about that.

"I don't care about SHIT."

The woman nodded repeatedly, holding the notepad in her hand close to her chest, and not looking up to face the back of the chair that the man was sitting in.

"I understand sir. But the workers at the plant should be notified. For their safety."

The man in the chair turned around and faced the woman, sticking a finger out at her and speaking in his low attacking voice that he always spoke to her in.

"Look here you dumb bitch. I don't give diddly about some fucking workers getting sick from radiation poisoning, I care about a fucking town getting electricity."

He turned the portrait on his desk around and showed it to the lady in the chair.

"Look at these two fucking people."

She didn't look. She knew the point he was about to make.

"LOOK AT THEM!" He screamed, throwing the portrait at her face.

"I know what the fuck it means to not have power in this god damn city. My wife and kid died when those street lights went out just a few fucking years ago. DO YOU FUCKING REMEMBER THAT?"

She began to tear up and wiped at her eyes.

"You must not be fucking listening."

He stood up and grabbed her, shoving her onto the bookshelf on the wall, breaking three shelves and knocking down three glass objects, she broke her heel as well as busted her lip, but the lip busting hadn't happened yet.

"DO YOU REMEMBER?"

He drew back his hand and slapped her hard on the mouth, busting her lip.

"I'm sorry Mayor Wenneck. I'm so sorry."

"Yeah. You better be God damn it. I worked too fucking hard to change this town to avenge those deaths. I worked TOO FUCKING HARD!"

He walked back over to his chair and sat down, opening a drawer on the side and pulling out a flask, he unscrewed the top and sipped at it heavily, until it was near empty.

"Look at me. Look at what I've become…"

She sat up and looked over at the Mayor of Perdido Beach, and she cried. He was the shell of the man she had met back in a Teaching Convention years ago. Nine years to be exact.

"You wanted me to be this."

He stood up and walked over and grabbed her by the face.  
He spoke softly now.

"I brought you along with me, out of the debt of being a TA to being the Mayor's assistant. I fucked you dry and you stayed with me, knowing your husband and four kids depended on you, you let me fuck you until you bled in the closet of my classroom every day. And for what? Because I promised you one day I'd make you my assistant if I ever became Mayor of this shithole."

He scoffed and spit on her face.

"You helped me alright, helped me realize that the people in this fucking town are slum. You helped me see that if I hadn't been out fucking you instead of at my son's 5th grade graduation, that maybe my family would still be alive, or better, maybe they would be dead, ALONG WITH ME."

He began to cry and collapsed next to her, he cried and cried as she cried with him. They both cried on the floor of his office, books and glass all over them. She slowly grabbed for his hand and softly squeezed it, suddenly happier when he squeezed back.

"I won't allow another family to be alone in the dark. The people at that plant have protection from that kind of stuff and until we can find an alternative source of power they need to stay. We don't have the money to clean anything out."

She nodded; no longer mad at his decisions, now all she wanted to do was love him.  
She pressed her chest against his and he pulled her down on top of him as he laid back on the floor, tiny pieces of glass not being felt as they dug into his suit.

He kissed her all over and then they fucked on his office floor.  
When she walked out of the room, the petition to fund Radioactive Cleansing had a fat DENIED stamp on it, and her skirt was hiked up to the middle of her thighs.

This would later be the cause of the meltdown that made Little Pete lose his cool.  
This would cause the loss of several children's lives.

But what did Phil Wenneck care? He had his money, his duty, and his bitch.  
Life was good.

5

"I'm so fucking tired."

Drake agreed by moaning in the bed that he and Caine had as of recently began sharing, and Caine began to look around the room for his glasses. They were lying right where he left them on the nightstand next to the bed. He wanted his contacts; his glasses always gave him a fucking head…

Wait. He looked around the room. His vision was blurry.

He took the glasses off, and gaped in horror and awe as he saw the room in perfect clarity.

He poked his eye to check if his contact was in, and for the love of God, it wasn't there.

"Drake! WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

Drake was in a daze as he looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand which read 8:00 AM.

"Already?... Fuck me."

He put his head back down as Caine still looked in awe into his glasses.

"No time for flirting, you'll never believe this shit."

Drake moaned an almost inaudible "Wut?" with his face in the pillow.

"I have perfect vision."

Drake sighed.

"Great, story; tell, it, again."

"No really you pain in the ass. I can see perfectly without my fucking glasses."

Drake sat up.

"Are your contacts in?"

"No! I checked!"

"Double check."

Drake fell back into the pillow and Caine checked his eyes again.

"Nothing. I swear."

Drake sat up.

"Let me check."

Caine swatted at his hand and laughed.

About an hour had passed and the boys were in the Grand Hall for breakfast. The Grand Hall was an amazing place, and the parents who would be timid in letting their child stay here would always be immediately sold when they saw this major beauty mark.

It was like the Hogwarts Grand Hall, Caine would think to himself. Except for this one was actually real  
Oh, how wrong he was for thinking Hogwarts was fictional, but this was not his fault.  
Nor part of his story.

Immediately after everyone was seated the Headmaster of Coates Academy came out and sat in his throne in the center of the Table of Holy Legacies. Everyone was in immediate silence as he began to bless the food, and at the end of the prayer everyone mumbled, "Amen" to which he smiled and began to gnaw on his own food with gratitude immediately after.

Everything and everyone seemed to be going along fine without Diana here. And it seemed that Caine and Drake had gotten away with a perfect murder.

At least it seemed that way until Caine spied a girl walking up to the Headmaster and speaking to him. The Headmaster had his fork half raised to his mouth as she spoke, mouth open and looking at her in what appeared to be frozen shock.

He didn't move, and when she turned around to walk away Caine noticed who she was.

"Drake."

She had long dark hair, and was wearing a completely immaculate black dress that completely broke the school's dress code.

"Drake."

It was like nobody else had seen her, not anyone at the table, not any of the other kids, nope, just Caine and the Headmaster.

It was at that moment that the Headmaster's face fell onto his plate, and he didn't move.

Diana didn't look back, but the entire room went silent as the Coates Academy nurse ran up to him from her seat at the faculty table.

She whispered but everybody heard the words she spoke, as she looked into the eyes of the other Administrators at the table;

"He's dead."

6

"99 Bottles of beer on the wall. 99 bottles of beer." *Burp*  
"You take one down, pass it… around? 98 bottles of beer on the wall."

Lana was walking along the side of a road. She was drunk and soiled, had ran away from home and had no idea where the fuck she currently was.

All she knew was there was an intense pain eating away at her private part. But who knows? Maybe it was her time of the month.

"HA! Time of the month! What a riot!"

She sipped at the beer, no, more like chugged at the beer that she was carrying around with her as she tried to walk down that dark path.

Several men nearby were packing up a train, it looked like they had just started, but how the fuck was she supposed to know? Maybe they were just finishing up.

"Mmm, Nutella."

She said, licking her lips as she spied the men putting cartons and cartons of Nutella onboard.

She was restoring herself, drinking this beer and walking down the road, the only thing she seemed to be noticing was the train men and the taste of her sweet liquor.

She hadn't noticed the man watching her in the distance. The Red Man.  
The Crimson Man.

He was wearing a crimson robe, watching her, molding her to be the savior that she would one day be, giving her the powers to go on top of the curse. Giving her the will to save but making her unwilling to be saved. This dark wizard was giving her the power to save others, and taking away the ability to save herself.

_To everybody you may heal,  
you'll keep them safe but you're soul I'll steal,  
for the rest of eternity your fate has this seal,  
and until I say, your fate is real._

As Lana wobbled along, a car pulled alongside her.  
Had it been a second sooner, they would have blocked off the end of The Crimson King's curse, but it was too late for Lana.

"Lana Arwen Lazar! You get in this damn truck right now!"

Lana walked over to the truck, but on the way over threw up all over the ground and collapsed in the throw up. She looked up and a woman got out of the truck, yelling at her but in a haze, Lana couldn't tell exactly what was going on.

She threw up again all over her hands and the interior of her truck. She heard her parents screaming at her and she began to cry. Lana never cried, and she sure as hell wouldn't admit to this if anyone ever asked her about it, that is if she even remembered.

She climbed in the back of the car as her parents drove her home, and listened to her mother's cursing words. How she hated that woman.

"First beer for that Tony guy and now this!"  
"I'm so fed up with your bratty behavior!"  
"You're so ungrateful! I wish you were never born!"  
"You're going to go and stay with your grandfather on his farm!"

It was those last few words that sealed her fate, and officially made her, The Healer.

7

Quinn was at Sam's door, crying.  
Crying because he knew Sam wasn't going to want to see him.  
Crying because he knew he was wrong for even coming.  
Crying because he was so in love, and he didn't want to be.  
Crying because of Howard, crying because of Howard.

Crying because of Howard.

He knocked on the door and waited, and waited.  
Finally the boy he had fallen so hard in love with opened the door, and he stood there in his boxer briefs and a tight shirt, and he smiled at Quinn.

He smiled. As if he had no idea what was about to happen.

7.25

The Dark Man was walking along the streets of Perdido Beach.

He had already infected a bunch of kids with the 'powers' of which The Dark Presence had been speaking of, and maybe he was right, maybe getting to the kids was the easiest way to find Pete.

Or Alan.  
Or Nemesis.  
Or whatever the fuck he was currently going by.

The Dark Man saw something out of the ordinary at that point. A boy was standing outside crying his eyes out, and another boy was standing at the door to the house. He was just standing there smiling, and for some reason Randall felt pain for the crying boy.

With a jolt of energy he shot out a blast of power that would go directly into the crying boy, a power much more powerful than the one's he had given to Caine and Drake.

But… he missed.

7.50

"Come inside. I don't want the neighbors to see you crying on my porch."

As soon as Quinn had past Sam coming into the house, Sam felt a jolt hit him in the chest, it hit him so hard that he flew back and hit the wall. Crying out in pain as his chest seemed to convulse.

"OW! Fuck!"

He wormed around, and Quinn shut the front door and got down next to him.

"Sam! What hurts?"

Sam suddenly stopped kicking and looked at Quinn, slowing down to a complete stop.

"N-Nothing now… It was here, then gone."

7.75

The Dark Man looked in awe at what he had just done.  
Was that boy the one The Crimson King had said not to touch?  
_Shit._

8

Quinn sat down on the couch next to Sam. The pain that Sam had been feeling before by now had subsided, and that was alright. Because more pain was on the way.

"Sam."

Quinn grabbed Sam's hand and smiled.

Quinn released Sam's hand and frowned.

"I can't do this anymore. It's not you…"

Sam continued to smile but the hurt was apparent on his face, he looked as though someone had just kicked him really hard in the stomach.

Or in more recent events, shocked him on the chest.

"I can't be like this. I never have been. I can't do it."

"Of course you can't."

Quinn was confused and couldn't make eye contact with Sam, but he tried to continue.

"This isn't me. I like women."

"No you don't."

Quinn stopped again, and tried to continue.

"I-I want to be normal."

Sam grabbed Quinn and kissed him on the lips wetly, caressing his tongue and pinning him down underneath him on the couch, grabbing his body and humping against it.

"Sam, please."

Sam continued to touch all over Quinn, sticking his hand down Quinn's pants and playing with him.

"Sam… no…"

Sam continued, and as soon as Sam put his mouth on Quinn's part all of the fight went out of him.

Sam continued to swirl his tongue around Quinn, taking all of him in and loving every second of it. He flipped Quinn over and pulled his pants down, and then pulled his own down, and began to do something that Quinn would have never been prepared for.

He was fucking him.

Hard. And there was no lubrication, no type of anything to appeal to the tight skin that was Quinn.

Quinn howled and pulled Sam out of him.

"NO! I've had enough!"

Quinn jumped off the couch and pulled his pants up.

"We are over Sam Temple. Over. I'm sick of this shit."

Sam smiled at Quinn.

"We can't be over."

"We are!"

"No you stupid idiot. We were never together."

Quinn was dumbfounded. Sam was right.

Sam stood up and walked past Quinn, heading to the front door.

"Where are you going?"

Sam laughed.

"To go see this girl I've been talking to lately, since we aren't working out."

"Sam wait."

"You know how to let yourself out. Goodbye Quinn."

9

"I hate my fucking life."

Mayor Wenneck was crying in his chair. His assistant was nowhere to be found, but there was another man sitting in front of him.

"I just wish times could go back to how they used to be."

The man nodded and smiled, his bushy beard making him look extra jolly.

"Phil. We can always just run away. Start a new life."

Phil looked up at his old friend and smiled.

"I know buddy. I know."

The man sitting in front of Phil couldn't see why they couldn't just run away if things were that simple, he couldn't quite comprehend why Phil would stay for the pain.

"Why can't we just leave?"

"BECAUSE. Alan. I have to protect these people from themselves and their damn miserable mindsets. They all think life is peaches and cream. They all think they can just do whatever the fuck they want to do and nothing will ever go wrong."

"Then maybe… a vacation."

"A vacation…"

Phil genuinely pondered the idea, and then he suddenly stood up.

"Let's get the fuck out of here."

Phil walked around his desk and they left the office, Phil yelled towards his assistant to take over while he was gone, and to do the right thing while he was gone. Not to do anything he didn't approve of. She screamed at him for leaving at such a crucial time of the year but he waved her off.

Maybe Mayor Wenneck leaving Perdido Beach nine days before the FAYZ was a sign, or maybe this was a warning that things were getting bad, or worse for the city.

Mayor Wenneck would never come back to Perdido Beach as long as he lived, and he would never know of the ultimate damage that he caused.

But he didn't care.  
And his lack of caring would prove to bring about the city's ultimate damnation.

**End of Chapter Eight.**


	10. Chapter 9: Maercs, Maercs, Maercs!

Chapter 9: Maercs, Maercs, Maercs  
4 DAYS. 16 HOURS.

1

Six days have passed, and Perdido beach is in a moment of peace. The wasteland that has yet to become is still focusing on the love of Sam and Quinn, as well as the creature that is Diana. The Mayor of Perdido Beach is long gone as well, in the spot where Endgame will begin. But who can tell exactly where that is?

Now, the sands of time are bringing us all together in the culmination that signifies the end of Perdido Beach. And the mystery is thicker than ever. Who is behind the crime that is about to take place? The ominous gaiaphage? The Dark Man? Who?

The answer to this question, lies a few days in the past...

FLASHBACK - 9 DAYS, 20 HOURS

2

_Becky screamed but nobody heard. Just before she could scream again, the blood from her neck overflowed from her body, and drowned her._

_About ten minutes into the feast, a man walked up._

_"Hey!"_

_He screamed, firing his gun into the air._

_All of the coyotes dispersed rapidly, except one._

_The "Leader" stayed behind for a few extra seconds and got a good look at the man who had walked up._

_The Dark Man almost shit himself._

**It seemed like these games were going to be more difficult than he anticipated.**

The Dark Man had not expected Roland to make an appearance in the small little sanctuary of Perdido Beach, but here he was, all dressed up in his boots and spurs, holding a tiny revolver and looking menacing. The dead body of Becky lie near The Leader, The Dark Man, as he morphed into human form.

"Roland. What a pleasant surprise."

"Cut the crap Randall. You and I both know this isn't a fun meeting."

Randall spits blood into the dirt and smiles his nasty yellow-toothed smile. Roland cringed inwardly, but made sure not to show it to The Dark Man.

"May I ask what you're doing here? Last I heard you were dealing with a situation in Bon Temps."

Roland blinked and kept his eyes shut for a few seconds, when he reopened them they were slightly wet, something that Randall could not only see, but feel in his bones.

"The situation in Bon Temps is critical. The Nefarious Seven will pay for the crimes they've committed. I swear it to you Randall. You. The Wicked Woman. The Crimson King. You will all pay for your sins."

Randall laughs. "What are you going to do? KILL ME! HA." Randall breaks out in laughter again as Roland balls up his fist.

"Oh. Mighty Roland. Please have mercy on my soul. Please don't smite me in the name of your pathetic Wiseman."

"Shut up Randall!"

Randall begins to mock him. "Shut up-Wandall, you making me a-sad. I'm-a-gonna-cwy."

Roland couldn't deal with this shit right now. He had a mission, and all Randall was making him do was forget his purpose, something he couldn't afford to do at this time.

"ENOUGH. I'm just here to warn you that you're time is coming. Endgame will be here soon and you better know that I will kill you... again."

Randall nods, still giggling softly and wiping a renegade tear from his joyous eye.

"Maybe Roland. Maybe we should finish this now. For the Crimson King has sent his disciple, Nerezza, to finish up the Gaiaphage and I am almost done with my task. If I were to completely finish everything the King asked of me, that wouldn't be very Randall Flagg... would it?"

"I agree. But I will not fight you now Randall. I want to very badly, but I can't risk death. Not yet."

"Then run, coward."

Roland pauses momentarily and then nods solemnly.

"We end this at the dawn."

He then vanishes, back into The Other World, far away from here.  
Randall transforms back into a coyote and flees into the woods, and the little boy watching from above disappears back to his bedroom in the Ellison house. He was tired.

3 - PRESENT DAY

The Crimson King hardly ever makes appearances in person, unless he absolutely has to be sure that the job will be done. He was there when Lana got her powers, only because he had to be sure that the piece of the puzzle fit perfectly.

Now here he was at the power plant, pushing his powers into it.

The nuclear reactors, he modified them from the outside. They would explode, that's what he intended anyway and usually what the King intended is what he received.

He was sure not to put too much pressure on it just to make sure that the reactors could make it another four days before the _Poof._

He smiled for the first time in centuries as he felt the presence behind him, he knew who it was. It was Nemesis, thinking that he could sneak up on him and surprise him.

The King dropped his mighty arms to his side and turned around to face Nemesis. Alan Wake was not in the form of Little Pete right now though, he was in his adult form. Which must mean Alan was on his way out of town.

"Γεια σας..."

"Shut up. I don't want to hear that Greek shit. Just shut your fucking mouth and listen to me Crimson. Because I'm not going to sit here and entertain your shit."

Alan walks a little closer to The King.

"You and I have unfinished business. Business that you better know we will soon finish. I am going to grind your fucking bones to dust you old prick. I swear to you. You killed my Alice. And I'm going to show you the pain and agony that I have to live with every fucking day."

"Γλώσσα!"

"DON'T FUCKING SIT THERE AND CRITIQUE MY LANGUAGE YOU CROOKED FUCK."

Alan runs towards the Crimson King, who steps slowly to the side and allows Alan to jump at thin air. He begins to cry as he grips the dirt.

_You are foolish to believe you can lay even a finger on me Alan Wake. You should get going before your time is up, Perdido Beach will be sealed shut in only four days._

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up! Get out of my head!"

_Now I'm going to show you what happens when you disobey my orders._

Alan wanted to vanish, to just disappear, but all he received was darkness.

4

Astrid was bawling. She had never been this scared in her entire life. Sure, she wouldn't remember it in the morning, but as of right now she was completely terrified. She was on her knees next to her bed, praying harder than she had ever prayed before.

It hurt, this pain she was feeling. She loved her Little Pete but something was terribly wrong with him.  
The way he had been acting.  
The way he had been looking.

It's like he was possessed by some demon, something that she could never believe.

Her baby, her little brother was possessed. After all of her prayers for him, the Devil had still seemed to grip his little soul.

"Damn it all! Damn this whole town!" She said. Not meaning it, but feeling good as she screamed. The irony in her statement would prove true very soon, when the town was cast into the bubble that would be known as the FAYZ.

She sits on the corner of her bed and puts her face in her palms, weeping. Where could she go to make this all better?

The church! She could go to the church to pray more directly. The ears of The Almighty would have to be able to hear her then, and reach down and grant her some of his grace to make her feel allllll better!

That was her intention as she ran to the top of the staircase. But as her foot slipped and she fell to her tragic head collision, she forgot everything that she had been planning. In fact, she forgot the entire situation. All she could remember was the Biology test.

The Wicked Woman stood near Astrid, at the top of the stairs, but Astrid could not see her. The Wicked Woman was cloaked. She could leave now though, her green eyes glowing and her smile wide. The Dark Man would be so happy with her, she did a real "bang-up" job.

She did one extra sweep of Astrid's mind just to be sure there was nothing left there about the "powers" of Nemesis, and then, she vanished.

5

Little Pete on the other hand, was far from absent-minded about the whole situation. He could feel The Man of The Light inside of him, seeking refuge from whatever it was that was attacking the town. The Gaiaphage he had said.

Pete didn't care, he just wanted this strange man out of his head. Alan had been borrowing his body for almost a month, doing strange things and contacting strange people, Little Pete was getting sick of it.

He grabbed the Game Boy sitting in the bed with him after much effort and began to play a game.

The screen anyone else would see would be void of any game, but the screen Little Pete saw had two figures standing on opposite sides of the screen.

_Hello Alan._

_"What is this? Where are we kid? I don't have time for games right now."_

_Silence Wake. I've been good to you, and now you must hear me out: As of late you have made my sister very uncomfortable and scared. And I must ask you to depart and find a new vessel in which to hide from the King. Again, I sincerely apologize._

_"No. Listen kid. You don't understand. You're too young to comprehend what that thing wants from you. The Gaiaphage is evil, it'll use your powers-"_

_As far as I see it, you have been using my powers long enough for me to realize I can decline. So when he in fact comes to use my powers, I will decline._

_"Damn it kid! You can't just deny the Gaiaphage, it's stronger than anything I've ever came into contact with."_

_I don't know if you know this, but I'm autistic. There isn't much that scares me._

_"But-You-"_

_As I said before Alan, it is time for you to go.__  
__Εγώ σας εξορίσει από αυτή την ψυχή,_  
_Για να βρείτε το δρόμο σας σας μοναχική πορεία._

_"What? You know the language of the fallen?"_

Before Pete could give any answers and before Alan could ask any more questions, he was gone. Little Pete set the game down. And then he screamed.  
That's all his mind would let him do.

6

Quinn was nervous, waiting for Sam in the secret place on the corner of the beach. The place they had that first kiss, the place that he knew the feelings were real. Quinn was wearing a bright blue plaid shirt and tight jeans, easily showing his strangeness to the outside world, not that that was a bad thing.

It was something Sam loved. Something that Sam appreciated and admired, maybe even one of the reasons why Sam had stayed with Quinn so long, and now it seemed the longevity of their relationship was coming to an end.

Quinn wasn't scared, but yet intimidated by what was to come. The events he and Sam had been through together so far were anything but promising, and he was in fact scared of what Sam was going to bring to the table today.

Or to the sand, I guess.

Quinn laid back and unbuttoned his plaid shirt and let it hang around his sides. He was tired. He hadn't gotten much sleep in the past few days. Rape does that to you.

He had never seen a woman go and talk to a man who raped her after it happened. He had seen people be taken to court, but he had no justified reason to take Sam to court did he? After all he kind of wanted it.

Stop. He had to stop thinking like that.

But damn it all, he couldn't. Because he felt for Sam, he really, truly did.

But was that what he wanted to feel? The poke and prod of Sam Temple eating away at the insides of his rear? No. He wanted love from Sam. Not vulgarity.

He wanted what they had before. When they were just able to make out on the couch and not have to fight over what real sex was. He wanted to just be able to love Sam. Was that so much to ask for? A partner in love to walk through this life with?

He saw Sam in the distance and immediately sat up. The white shirt underneath his plaid button-up was covered in sand, but Quinn didn't really notice it. He stood up and waited until Sam approached, and was immediately hurt by the first thing he said.

"Sup dude."

Ouch. That was the automatic notification that Quinn was back in the friend zone. Everything they had before had been set and taken back.

"Hello Sam."

Sam walked over to Quinn, and in the silence he wrapped his arms around him and kissed him deeply, warmly and holding him tight with the sounds of the waves nearby.

After what felt like an eternity but only five seconds, Sam pulled away from Quinn, and then with that silver tongue he struck another bite at Quinn.

"That was the last time I'll ever kiss you Quinn Gaither."

"Sam I-"

"Don't speak. Because this is hard enough already. I'm a man Quinn. And I have needs. And when you threw yourself at me I caught you because of my needs. I do not love you, I do not need you. In fact, I'm perfectly fine with never seeing you again."

Quinn's throat felt like it was shut, and his eyes began to sting with hurt.

"I'm sorry… I really and truly am sorry for putting you through this. But I want to go back to being friends. Being best friends. Because this isn't working anymore.

Quinn took a step back and nodded. The nod seemed to lodge the tears from his eyes and when they began they didn't know how to stop.

Quinn opened his mouth to speak but said nothing. So he opened it again and this time it was but a croak. Finally, the third time he opened it and said:

"Fine."

Sam smiled weakly and then walked away, leaving Quinn to stand on the beach, crying about the love that never was.

7

Sam wasn't the only Temple feeling emotionally heavy. His mother was sitting on the couch in the living room, staring at a picture of Caine and Sam together when they were young.

"You have to give one up dear. It's your only choice. Unless you can find yourself a rich man"

That's what her mother had said and damn it all she had taken her word, even above the word of Pastor Widdlew who said to keep both and pray for a savior.

But she had found a savior while she was with Sam hadn't she? And all Sam had managed to do was burn the poor man and cause him to want to move out.

Maybe she would have been better off with Caine.

Maybe.

Sam's mother felt sick, she couldn't think straight. She knew something was wrong, ever since the Headmaster keeled over at Coates Academy she knew that they were in for darker days. The Headmaster had always said when he died the end of the world would follow soon after. Was it naïve that she believed that deep down was true?

She couldn't think about that right now while the immunizations were still going on at the Academy.

So she stood up and walked into the office study and opened up the big black safe. She shoved the picture into it and then slammed it shut before walking back out to the living room and lying on the couch.

Then she thought better of her pitiful ways and got up and took a nice wine from the cabinet above the fridge (a wine that a rocky son-of-a-gun would one day throw across that same kitchen floor nonetheless) and she drank three swigs right from the bottle before putting it back.

That hot aura flew into her stomach and suddenly she found herself feeling very sick. For the aura reminded her of the feeling she got when she walked over to the Headmaster's body. The feeling that something had moved right by her, something she had felt but not seen.

Her mind suddenly dulled out and she couldn't think about it anymore. She probably blamed the wine but dear reader, you and I know how close the Dark Man is. And it's safe to blame him for any type of strangeness of that sort.

She sat up quickly and threw up all over the floor, and at that moment, Sam walked in.

"Mom! Are you okay?"

Sam yelled, running over to his mom and helping her sit up. He didn't wait for an answer, he ran into the kitchen and grabbed a washrag and began to clean the throw up from the wood floor, as Sam's mother started questioning him.

"Why are you out so early? Don't you have school in thirty minutes?"

"Yeah. I had to meet up with Quinn this morning though, he needed my research paper."

"Cheating Sam?"

"No mom. Quinn and I worked together."

"If that's what you call it."

Sam looked at her and frowned. And then he got back to cleaning.

"Maybe instead of Science you should work on Math. Since I saw you're failing."

"I don't want to talk about that right now ma. It's too early in the morning."

"Then you shouldn't have been sneaking out."

"Maybe you shouldn't have been drinking!"

Sam's mother looked taken aback and then stood up.

"Well. I guess I should go get a shower before I head off to work."

Sam continued to clean the floor as she walked away, and before departing completely she looked back and muttered, "Ungrateful."

9

Quinn was prodded when he walked in the door too. But instead of by his overly-concerned slightly drunk mother, it was by his underly-concerned over drunk father.

"Boy. What are you doing out of the house so damn early?"

"Sorry dad. I thought I woke up late, my alarm was set weird."

"Sure it was. You done snuck out again to go see your little fag boyfriend?"

"No dad. I'm not gay."

"Yeah you is. My buddy at work said he saw you kissin' on some boy on the beach. How about that?"

"Dad. It's not true."

"Funny 'cause he called me about three minutes ago, and I wouldn't believe him 'cept that fact that your shirt is covered in sand."

Quinn looked down at his white shirt, and then stuttered:

"Dad, I-I-"

Quinn's father grabbed him and began to punch him in the face.

"HOW DARE YOU EMBARRASS ME YOU FUCKING FAGGOT."

Quinn's dad punched him over and over, Quinn could feel blood oozing from his face. He wished his mother were here, she wouldn't stand for something like this.

"If I ever see you out again, or even get a call at six in the fucking morning over kissing boys I will kill you! Are we clear?

"Yes sir."

"Now go in your fucking room and don't leave it until tomorrow morning."

"But dad I have sch-"

"Fuck school. If it can't teach you to keep your Peter away from Joe's then I have no foresight to why you should even go! Now get!"

It was at that moment that Quinn wished his father would just disappear. And in just three days, by golly, he would.

10

The Power Plant is the one place we haven't fully visited yet in our little story of the world before the FAYZ. The officials at the power plant were all in one little conference room. The official Officials would never subject themselves to such close quarters but these are the peasants of the Lords.

A man with a nametag that only reads "Ellison" is talking about a nuclear spill that is seemingly dripping from the plant into the soil beneath the plant. A man with a nametag that reads "Bouregard" is saying it isn't their problem to regard. Saying that the mayor will have to take care of it when he feels like expanding their budget again, something he hasn't done for months and months. The other coworkers agree, except Ellison who states this may be a huge problem for the water supply in Perido Beach, to which Bouregard laughs and reiterates his earlier statement.

Ellison then goes on to his next topic of conversation and highlights the fact that if help is not soon found, they could in fact be in for a nuclear meltdown within the next couple of days. Bouregard simply stands and says, "Time for a vacation then." And then leaves the room. Ellison drops down into his chair as the other coworkers leave.

He's the only one that's terrified. Mostly because he's the only one that's seen how much damage this thing could cause. And he's the only one with kids living in Perdido Beach. And waking up in Perdido beach in the center of a nuclear explosion, that's not something he wants his kids doing.

He had to think fast, and that's what he did.

11

Little Pete was sitting in his father's office, playing the gameboy and feeling happy for the first time in weeks. No sign of The Man of The Light and no sign of any of the other people who had been haunting his dreams as of late, and it seemed Astrid had forgot all about the recent affairs that he had been plagued with.

Pete looked into the blank screen of his gameboy and saw something that struck him as quite odd. It was Perdido Beach and it was up in flames. He saw a boy with what looked like a whip for a hand and he saw a man violently throwing rocks, but not grabbing them. He seemed to move them by just pointing his hands at them.

This was strange indeed.  
He heard voices, he heard people screaming.

Scream! Scream! Scream!

And he heard some strange language, all these noises culminating at once in his head.

He heard the language spoken from some dark mine, where a dull green glow was spreading quickly.

"You will die. Eid lliw uoy."

The language began. He couldn't quite understand what it meant though.

Maercs! Maercs! Maercs!

He looked into the game and his eyes began to bulge, as he saw his sister, his wonderful Astrid, hanging from tree. A TREE.

NO THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING. WHY ASTRID? WHY ARE YOU HANGING BY YOUR NECK IN SUCH A MANNER? WAKE UP BIG SISTER. WAKE UP AND HUG ME THROUGH THE MORNING LIKE **THE GOOD OLD DAYS.**

They were screaming. The town was screaming. "Kill the freaks!" They screamed! "Kill the mutant freaks!"

Maercs! Maercs! Maercs!

WHY ARE THEY SCREAMING? ASTRID HOLLERED FROM THE TREE WHERE HER NECK WAS SNAPPED AND BLOOD DRIPPED FROM THE CORNER OF HER MOUTH.  
WHY SAM TEMPLE? ANSWER HER QUESTION. WHY ARE THEY SCREAMING!

"You're gonna regret it! You're gonna regret it!"

REGRET WHAT! REGRET THE SCREAMING!

He heard laughter from somewhere far away and his head throbbed. He didn't understand any of this, it was making no sense. He felt the storm coming but didn't feel the rain.  
WHY GOD, WHY COULD HE NOT FEEL THE RAIN.

Then he saw the flashbacks. Astrid and Pete, dancing in the rain.  
They were dancing! HA! Imagine, Peter Ellison! Dancing!

Maercs! Maercs! Maercs!

Imagine, Peter Ellison… Dancing.

12

John and Mary Terrafino didn't go to school that day either. They were preparing for their father to come back from Afghanistan. What a beautiful prospect that was.

Mary had stopped throwing up. She was beginning to eat again! Wondrous occasion indeed for the entire family.

Their mother had allowed them to take off of school to help clean the house. They would take off from school the day after the weekend as well, to prepare, to prepare, to prepare.  
But Mary and John would never see their dear father, his plane crashes on the way into America and even though he survived, well, let's just say the FAYZ is really good at keeping families apart.

So Mary would end up going to school that Monday to keep her mind off of it, but after only a few hours the Poof would be another problem for her. And in only a couple more hours, her breakfast would be flushing down the toilet.

Along with her life.

13

Quinn rolled over in his bed, the stinging in his face an apparent showing of what had happened in the past couple of hours. He had been beaten four more times throughout the day, every time his father was able to get up the stairs he beat Quinn. And it made Quinn realize maybe being gay was in fact wrong.

He would get Sam back for this, for all of the pain he's had endure by his hand. Sam is nothing but a pretentious egotistical jerk who thinks he's so much better than anyone else.

He hated the way he fucking looked at him on the beach. he hated how small he made Quinn feel, damn it he was sick of it. He was sick of this man being his best friend this man who was but a shell of human emotion.

"Fuck Sam Temple."

He muttered. But he wanted to scream.  
Maercs? Yes Maercs.

Quinn started thinking about killing himself today. Wouldn't that be funny? To end it all and make everybody know who did it? He could carve SAM TEMPLE DID THIS into his arm. That would be hilarious. To end his pathetic life with that. To end it all with SAM TEMPLE written on his arm. Sam would eat that shit all up.

He wanted Sam to pay for what he had done, so for now he would wait.  
He would wait until the right moment to make Sam eat the shit he's been going through.

And now the betrayal of Quinn for Caine should be clear to you.

14

Little Pete looked into the light of his gameboy and saw the impossible. People were leaving, the good people the people who were supposed to be helping, were fleeing from the area. They were the 19. And they were fleeing. From the N7. The Leader known as The Crimson King had just defeated the other leader known as Roland. And now Roland and his friends were fleeing from The Dark Man, The Wicked Woman, and... was that The Man of The Light? Pete didn't understand what it meant, other than the fact that it spelled trouble. It spelled the end.

He remembered the kids burning in the fire, and the way they all screamed. He figured this was how it would all end, with the kids screaming and burning. But something deep down was telling him different.

Something deep down was telling him it all ends with a whisper, not a maercs.

**End of Chapter 9.**


	11. Chapter 10: We All Lose In The End

**Chapter Ten: We All Lose In The End  
10 HOURS.**

1

She can't breathe. She can't think. She can't sleep. She can't write. She can't read. She can't live. She can't shower. She can't urinate. She can't defecate. She can't cook. She can't clean. She can't speak. She can't see. She can't hear. She can't taste. She can't lie. She can't pray. She can't pray. She can't-

Astrid can't move. Where is Little Pete?

That's what her mind screams at her.

In an accusatory tone-

WHERE IS LITTLE PETE?  
WHERE IS LITTLE PETE?  
WHERE IS LITTLE PETE?

Where. Is. Little. PETE?

"I don't know…"

She whispers but she doesn't speak. Because she can't. The language is lost in the land of never-happened, because Astrid Ellison isn't able to move.

_You're just like him._

Her brain taunts her. Her brain, the one organ of her body that always led her the right way, it turned on her just then and taunted her.

_You're just like LITTLE PETE._

She is just like him. She's acting just like him. Lying on the ground in a ball next to her bed staring off into space. Staring into the wall as if it kept some dirty little secret with her, even though that's far from the case. Dying. Dying. Dying.

"Please take mercy on me God…"

She think-speaks to no avail. Her brain is working against her, breaking apart Astrid Ellison.

That's when the temperature of the room changed. It got suddenly cold and dark. The darkness was an implication of course, because the only thing that darkened was the spiritual ambience of the room. Suddenly it felt as though Satan himself flew into the room, and maybe that's whose feet were next to Astrid's head.

"Hello older Pete."

Astrid could feel her head moving to face the woman's voice. The woman who she had no proper greeting title for, since she had no idea who it could be.

"Don't try to move babyluv. Let me come to you."

In a flash the woman moved down to Astrid's face. She has long brown hair and a pale face, she's smiling and it causes her cheeks to press up and reveal cute dimples.

"Who are you?"

Astrid think-speaks, but is not heard. The woman runs her hand down Astrid's face and then looks away from her. The woman speaks in her thick country accent again.

"Nerezza dear, get me a warm wash rag."

Astrid senses movement in the room and after a minute or so a hand wrapped in darkness hands the woman a rag. The woman grabs it and begins to wipe Astrid's face.

"You're covered in blood honey-love. You look like you got in a fight with Spartacus himself."

The woman with the Black Hand speaks softly, and the brown-haired woman silences her. She speaks angrily at the girl who has seeped into the corner of the room.

"Do not speak in such a way of your father you imbecilic creature. You are nothing! You do not ever question his ways. You mustn't!"

Astrid could hear the girl speaking softly again, though the tongues she spoke in could not be identified by Astrid. The country, brown-haired woman turns her attention back to "older Pete" Ellison.

"I am so sorry for this honey bun. A girl as beautiful as you shouldn't have to be put through so much pain. But, it's for a higher purpose than you know."

Astrid could feel herself regaining control.

"The devil… walks among us."

The woman laughs in Astrid's face as she continues to wipe off the blood.

"Honey, not even the devil would be able to do what we're planning."

Astrid's head grows foggy as her face is wiped off. In the morning she won't remember any of this, but at this moment it all feels so real it all feels so very wrong.

The sound of her mother's voice comes from miles away, trying to wake her up for help with some mundane task. But Astrid can't answer, because she's in this realm.

And in this realm she can't scream.

She can't

maercs

2

In the darkness of the night Walter O'Dim/Randall Flagg trudges back to the mine shaft. Hermit Jim lie dead in his cabin. But it wasn't his duty to hide that body, because somebody else would.

So he continues on the path to the mine and when he finally pulls up he parks his truck in a shed near the shaft.

He walks inside the mine and with his torch in hand he goes all the way into the shaft and finally into the lair with its putrid smells and wide-open range.

He sets his torch on the wall and it gives off a dull glow in the crimson tinted room. He holds up one hand and the room suddenly shifts to a color more green.

His game was about to begin. Nemesis would be here soon for one final fight. And it would be in that very instant that he would finally face his death. The death that he's so long sought after.

It was finally coming.

3

Years ago, Walter O'Dim, the Millennial Patriarch as he was called in his own galaxy, was left for death. He had to make a choice at that point. Did he want to die in space or speed off into oblivion with the hope of combining with some DNA somewhere off in the depths and attempt to live on?

He chose the second option. His final moments as green goo felt like light years as he passed through space and eventually hit the atmosphere of planet Earth. He hit a nuclear power plant and the first man he came into contact with blended with his DNA. From that point forward he took on the name of Randall Flagg. Sometimes Walter O'Dim. And even more rarely, The Dark Man, amongst other titles.

He fought to survive but the children of Perdido Beach began to develop powers that could counter his, so he had to trigger a reaction out of the strongest. He had to get the strongest child in Perdido Beach to make his stand so that he could get them all trapped and take them down one-by-one.

Nemesis was that one.  
And he was here.

4

Three hundred children were in the mine. All of their eyes were aglow as Walter turned to face them. The shaft was silent other than the soft crackling from Walter's torch on the wall.

It might have been dark in the room but Walter could see, and he knew that all of the kids could see him as well.

"Nemesis." He says as one boy steps forward.

The boy's blue eyes glow in the darkness and Walter smiles. "Well, well, well."

Walter O'Dim looks at the boy in the Spiderman pajamas who's standing up straight and staring at him with diligent eyes. Anyone who knows who this boy is wouldn't be surprised though at his blank demeanor because this boy has severe autism.

"So you think you can win this battle Nemesis?"

**I know I can, Gaiaphage.**

"And what makes you so sure?"

**Because I am immortal, and your games are unwinnable.**

"Well, in that case I believe we should play a game Nemesis."

**No. We're going to play my game, with my rules.**

"State them."

**I am going to seal us in this town. I will give you until you can find your own body that you win fair and square, and then we will battle to the death.**

"You want me to give up my body Nemesis?"

**No. These kids will help me take care of that.**

The kids snarl and growl and The Dark Man smiles. "To the death then Nemesis."

**To the death.**

The two begin to fight and Walter knocks many different children down. Nemesis attacks the man but he isn't able to deflect Walter's strongest attacks in Little Pete's body.

He runs towards Walter to leech but-

Walter blasts Nemesis and the boy jumps on the wall and then glides in to attack. The children all begin to vanish from the scene and back to their bedrooms as Nemesis begins to lose power.

The Dark Man grabs Nemesis by the foot and swings him into the cavern's wall. He yelps in pain but then gets up and delivers a swift blow to Walter's gut.

Walter gets up and blasts Nemesis with a ball of light, and he screams in pain as the last of the children disappear.

**This isn't over Randall.**

"Please, call me Walter. And quite the contrary, dear Nemesis, the end has just begun."

5

Somewhere not so far way, Cody and Fang finish their work at the power plant, and are finally able to leave. Elsewhere, the Dark Man emerges from the mine shaft for his final nighttime romp across Perdido Beach, and his final attempt to poison Nemesis before the game can even begin.

"The only way to stop Nemesis is to find who he deems the most important."

A ball of light appears in Walter's hands and he looks into it, a boy holding a glowing green ball with fear in his eyes appears, and then several other images.

A school bus-

A surf board-

A girl with blonde hair-

A boy with odd pants-

And a mother.

Walter destroys the ball of light and then licks his finger and holds it up in the wind.

"And now we go east." He says, and takes off towards the Temple home.

6

Quinn sits alone in his bedroom staring at the wall.

He thinks to himself that maybe Sam hating him is right, and maybe he doesn't deserve to be with someone like Sam. Maybe he doesn't deserve anything.

Maybe he deserves to die.

He gets up from his place on the bed and groans to himself. This couldn't be the end. This couldn't be how things between Sam and himself were left off. He had to make one last ditch effort to save the friendship that has been culminating for all of these years.

Or maybe he shouldn't.

No! He had to.

Quinn reaches in the closet and pulls out a t-shirt and throws it on. Then he walks over to the window and pulls it open and steps outside. He looks towards the beach and notices how soothing the waves sound.

Then he trudges off in the direction of Sam's house, just as The Dark Man knocks on the Temple's door.

777777

Sam's mom sits on the couch in her living room. Her final hours in the home she's lived in for so many years is littered with booze and television.

She sits there and doesn't really think about all of the bad things she's done, but instead she thinks about all the things she never got to do.

She thinks about the husband that she never got to reconcile with-

_I didn't cheat on you Connie! I would never cheat on you!_

_Get out of my house!_

She thought about the son she would never get to love fully-

_What's your name young man?_

_Caine. Caine Soren._

And finally she thought about-

There's a knock at the door. Connie hurriedly gets up and fixes her dress, and then looks over towards the window. It's almost four in the morning, who in their right mind would come to the door this late inquiring about anything?

She walks over to the kitchen and grabs the baseball bat hanging on the wall and then slowly moves over to the front door.

"Who is it?" She calls, and a man answers her.

"Name's Walter mam, could I use your phone? My truck broke down right outside and I ain't got no way of getting any help."

She pauses.

"There's a gas station a few blocks down the road."

"Gee mam, it would really mean a lot if you could just let me borrow your phone for a few secs."

She thinks about it, and perhaps it's her drunken state that makes her open the door for the Dark Man, or perhaps it's the fact that she's lonely.

Regardless, the door soon opens.

The man stands in the doorway with his arm propped up near the frame. He looks inside at Connie and seems to take in her entire being, his eyes roaming from her soft white shoulders to her mild muffin-top and down to her recently pedicured toes.

He smiles at her, and Connie swears she's seen this man before.

He walks into the house and shuts the door behind him.

"Where's your phone?" He asks. Connie points towards the kitchen.

The man crosses the booze-littered living room and walks into the kitchen, grabbing the cordless phone on the wall that would be stolen by a young man named Computer Jack in three months and six days, for some phone project.

Connie waits in the living room and sits on the couch, trying her hardest to forgive herself for letting a man in her house who might just kill her.

Walter walks out of the kitchen (far too quickly, but that didn't occur to Connie one bit) and approaches Connie with a smile.

"Thank you so much for your hospitality Ms. Temple." He says, and it also didn't occur to Connie at that point that the man knew her name – that little fact wouldn't occur to her until six seconds before the poof, and that's long after she could actually do something about it.

"Not a problem Mister-"

"Dim. Walter O'Dim." But it comes out as Walter Odem.

She nods her head and then averts her gaze from the man in the denim jacket, he walks closer to her and she stands up, ready to assault him with the bat.

"There, there. I'm not gonna hurt you Miz Connie. I just wanna talk to you."

He takes the bat from her hands and Connie doesn't move. Maybe she couldn't move at that point? The powers of the Dark Man are very odd and versatile.

"You promise you won't hurt me?" She asks again, looking up at the Dark Man as he puts his cold hands on her face. He looks back at her with eyes so familiar Connie loses herself in them. Who is this man?...

"Not unless you want me to…" He whispers.

The light in the kitchen goes out and suddenly so does the television, but Connie doesn't notice any of that. For fifteen minutes her loneliness is broken by the man of the night, and her son upstairs sleeps like an angel for the last time in years.

8

"Wake up Lana!" Her grandfather says as she looks up from the bed towards her alarm clock.

"Grandpa, it's three in the morning…" She says, and the man smiles.

"I know! But we gotta get out to the farmer's market by four to get the good stuff, and then we have to get heading over to my farm. I wanna get there by nine!" He says, and she gets out of bed.

Her parents were making her leave her comfy home in Las Vegas to go and live with her grandfather in some shithole called Perdido Beach. The bad part is that she isn't actually going to live in the city but on the outskirts past the dunes.

She thought it was a shitty way for her parents to get back at her for stealing booze and sneaking out all the time, but she assumed this was the punishment a girl deserves when she whores out for guys older than her.

She gets up and pulls on the nearby pair of jeans and then walks into the bathroom and looks in the mirror. She groans and then looks down at her feet as she feels a familiar presence.

"Good morning boy." She says, leaning down to pet her beloved dog, "Don't worry. I won't go unless they let me take you with me."

She smiles and then walks back into the bedroom where her grandfather is waiting. She looks at him and he looks at her and for a few seconds the two stand in silence.

"So you finally ready to go?" He asks.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"It's going to be hard living with me. You won't have your parents around to coddle you."

She shrugs. "I've never been one for coddling anyway."

The three leave the bedroom with Lana's suitcase in tow, she looks back at her room one last time and thinks to herself that it'll be a long time before she sleeps in this bedroom again.

It's funny how sometimes humans can be so dead on about some things, and so oblivious to others.

9

Caine sits in his dorm room and looks at the wall for the third time in one day. He doesn't just look at it though, he looks through it. He stares into the blank abyss past the wall and doesn't move.

He doesn't blink.  
He doesn't budge.

He can't seem to shake the image of Diana standing there in the Dining Hall in her all-black dress killing the Headmaster, because she did kill him didn't she? The man did practically keel over as soon as she walked onto the scene.

And now he couldn't help but shake the feeling that maybe he's next. Maybe Diana is going to walk through the door and kill Drake and then him for what they did to her.

Caine looks at the clock near Drake's bed and sees that it's almost four in the morning. He thinks to himself that maybe if he checks the makeshift grave that he and Drake made it'll make him feel better.

He stands up and pulls his pajama bottoms off the floor and suddenly his knees go weak.

"Caine." She says, and suddenly the world goes into slow motion.

Caine didn't know whether or not to just turn and attack the apparition or wake up Drake to prove that he wasn't going mad, but for a few seconds all he could do was stand there. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours – so it felt.

"Caine. I forgive you." She says, walking up to him. She grasps his hand and holds it tightly and he looks up to meet her eyes, her stone cold dead eyes. He thinks to himself that something this dead would never see any life again, it would never hold life or any type of being.

Caine didn't know, hell, he couldn't know that one day she would be walking around with the life he put inside her on an island far, far away.

He stares back at her and the slightest smile creeps on her lips.

"You look like you've seen a ghost."

"What do you want from me Diana?" He says.

"You and Drake tried to kill me."

A bead of sweat trickles down his forehead and he stammers, "You killed the headmaster."

She turns her head and then blinks repeatedly. "What are you talking about?"

He flashes back to the sight of her walking up to the headmaster in a black dress and pointing, but wait, that wasn't Diana. It couldn't be Diana because Diana was standing in front of him in a t-shirt and jeans. That woman… who was that woman-

_NEREZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA_

His head gets a jolting pain and he's forced to sit down on the bed because the room starts spinning. Diana looks down at him confused and then puts a hand on his shoulder.

It was at that moment that Diana felt the pressure that tingled her brain, the pressure that would one day evolve into an ability to read power levels and tell who's the strongest and weakest of the kids scattered in Perdido Beach.

Before she could speak of this tingling sensation though a warm, hard gust pushed her away from Caine and at the wall near the bed. She smacked the wall with such force that she couldn't do anything but look up at the man who did it.

Caine looked down at his hands in shock and awe and for the first time of many to come, he smiled a very vicious smile.

10

The Brattle-Chance family was finally leaving to go and film their newest movie in New York, Mr. And Mrs. Smith.

Well, not exactly the whole family. Just the parents.

Sanjit was going to be stuck with his brothers and sisters in an endless loop of shit in just twelve hours, when his so-called "parents" were hours away and all of the other adults were stuck on the other side of an invisible barrier.

"Make sure you clean your bedrooms. I don't want the maids thinking we're paying them to pick up after ungrateful children." It was midnight. Sanjit had to listen to his "mother" tell him over and over again what to do and what not to do.

He listened even though he didn't really want to listen.

"If you need anything call this number." She hands him a card and he puts it in the waistband of his boxers. She kisses him on the cheek and then walks out of the mansion, walking towards her beloved husband and the crew that would take them away from their home for one last time.

It was hard living on an island so far from the mainland, because Sanjit only ever had his siblings and tutors to talk to. He looked off into the distance towards the city and in the full moonlight and the cities lights glowing, he could have sworn the city looked as though it were ablaze.

"The city is burning." He said sarcastically, and aloud to himself.

He laughed and then locked the door to the mansion, and the thought he had about Perdido Beach burning left his mind in less than two minutes.

11

Zil woke up in a cold sweat, and for the third time covered in the sticky residue from another wet dream.

"Damn it!" He says, and then gets out of bed. He rubs his eyes and then looks down at the large wet spot on his briefs. He slides out of them and grabs a clean pair, stuffing the old pair in the laundry basket towards the bottom with all the rest.

He keeps having all of these stupid sexual thoughts, and all of these stupid dreams. This was the ninth day in a row.

He woke up feeling guilty and dirty and he was sick of it. He was sick of feeling like he shouldn't be waking up like this and still having no control over the fact that he was.

He kept having all of these dirty thoughts about him, the guy he barely knew who kept on popping into his dreams. That guy, Lance.

That freaking guy.

He gets back in bed and shuts his eyes, trying to forget about-

"Hey…" Lance says, looking down at Zil in bed.

Zil looks up and then groans, knowing right away that this is a dream and he's about to ruin another good pair of underwear.

Lance gets on top of him and the two start kissing, getting hot and heavy right away. Lance bites Zil's ear and he purrs like a kitten as he runs his hands up Lance's toned back, and feels the muscles starting to form there.

Lance kisses down the side of Zil's face and sucks on his neck briefly before going down further and kissing the boy's bare chest. Zil keeps moaning getting redder and redder at the thin strap of his boxers are pulled down to reveal his smooth part.

Zil wakes up again.

The familiar wetness is evident.

He moans one last time, but this one a bit more irritated than the last few, and before changing his underwear he falls back asleep.

In the silence of the night Zil Sperry is skipped over by the Dark Man for the final time. He doesn't have any special powers, nor will he ever. And in the final wet night Zil has in the home that he called home for so long, he couldn't have been happier to feel human.

Not that he'd ever know what feeling inhuman felt like.

12

It was in the middle of the night that Penny first saw it happen.

Penny snuck out of her bedroom and crept down the hall and saw her father and sister in the bedroom, and he was taking pictures of her.

Her sister was holding a teddy bear, completely naked and crying. The flash was blinding, and for a moment Penny thought her father would go and help her sister, and make her stop crying but she didn't.

Penny never understood why her daddy took all of these bad pictures of Dahlia, but Penny couldn't wait until she was old enough to be in those pictures. She couldn't wait for her daddy to show her the same love he showed her, Penny waited and waited for the day that would never come.

Now here Penny was, six years older and six years angrier. Her father was long dead, as we all know he hanged himself in a prison after his fellow inmates gave him too much shit. But Penny liked him better dead, because that meant no more surprises would come from his way.

She kind of wished her mother would just die already so she didn't have to keep getting the sad phone calls from Dahlia saying that mom was getting worse, but even those had become less frequent, nobody wanted to see dear old Penny after all of the shit she'd done.

So she was just rotting at Coates, rotting away with these awful images destroying her mind.

The Dark Man never had to poison Penny, she poisoned herself. She begged the Devil to take her over and she pleaded with him to use her as his vessel, to do his bidding and to love her. The Devil is the only father she would ever have.

When the messenger Nerezza came to her in her dream and told her that the Devil was happy to be there for her, and that he would protect her from now on, Penny was filled with a new love she had never known before. The only time she had ever felt love like that was-

_Caine ran through the hallway completely naked, and his penis was-_

Erect. Penny had seen her crush completely naked running down the hallways of Coates. Not that she understood at that age what any of that meant, but she did enjoy seeing him so vulnerable, so naked, and so fucking endearing.

Now she sat in her dorm room coloring a picture of a dead little girl. The dead little girl had spiders crawling out of her eyes and blood pouring down her head.

Penny etched the word _FEAR _into the top of the drawing and then put it away. She walked over to her bed and sat down. She couldn't help but feel the overwhelming need to go to sleep, and while most of the kids in Perdido Beach had the same problems of going to bed tonight, at least none of them felt the emptiness she was feeling.

Except maybe Quinn Gaither and Charles Merriman.

She laid down and looked up at the ceiling, and just as she turned off the lamp near her bed the door to the bedroom unlocked, and in walked her whore roommate for the first time in two days.

"Wake up Penny." She said.

Penny sits up as her roommate turns on the light. "What is it?"

"I have to tell you something but you have to swear you won't tell anyone."

Penny nods.

"Swear Penny!"

"I swear, Diana."

13 - _FLASHBACK_

"Tell me something Walter."

"Hm?"

"Who the fuck is Hermit Jim?"

"You mean, who the fuck **was** Hermit Jim?"

14 - _PRESENT_

Quinn knocks on Sam's window and Sam pulls open the blinds. After one look at Quinn he sighs and grabs a shirt off the floor to put over his tanned torso.

He opens the window and Quinn climbs in completely on his own accord, not waiting for an invitation from Sam whether or not he even wants him there.

Sam groans and shuts the window behind Quinn.

"We have to talk dude." Quinn says.

"What the fuck do we have to talk about?"

"This shit. We're best fucking friends and we're not going to let something this stupid get between us and ruin everything we had."

"What did we ever have Quinn?"

"Don't say that."  
"No, tell me."  
"Don't you fucking say that Sam Temple."

Sam moves closer to Quinn and shoves him against the wall, Quinn gasps and looks in his eyes.

"Did he do that to you?" Sam rubs his hand across Quinn's face where a nasty gash is prevalent.

Quinn nods his head and tries to choke back tears but the situation is too much and suddenly they just happen, and Quinn can't hold back anymore.

"He called me a fag. And tons of other stuff too Sammy."

Sam didn't stop his best friend from calling him Sammy, instead he just pulled Quinn in for a warm hug and waited until Quinn stopped choking on the tears and mucus clogging him.

"Are you alright?"

"No I'm not fucking alright Sam."

"What can I do?"

Quinn sniffles and looks up at Sam, and for the final time he has a sexual thought about him. Quinn never thinks of him in a sexual way again after that, and neither does Sam.

The only thing that absolutely did occur though that nobody can deny is the fact that at that moment they both wanted each other, and both of them controlled the urge.

"Be here for me."

"I am here for you."

"Forever and always dude?" Quinn says.

"Forever and always."

15

The Dark Man walks out of the Temple home completely satisfied, he was able to put Connie's growing suspicions to rest while also being able to influence Sam's powers in the process. The Dark Man only had a few tasks left to complete before he got to complete his final objective. He walked over to the McDonald's and ordered a Big Mac, luckily for him Mickey D's was open 24 hours a day and it was always willing to serve a smiling man with a fat pocket. Walter chowed down on the burger while walking away from the Temple home. A lone cloud sat over the home he had to visit last, the home of the Ellison family and the final place he would see before heading back to Coates Academy and finally to the dark and decrepit mine shaft that this body would come to an end inside of. He walked over to the living room window of the Ellison house and peered inside, and after discarding the wrapper to his heart attack burger, he opened the unlocked front door and stepped inside.

16 – **FIVE HOURS.**

The Breeze was dreaming, she was one of the only people in all of Perdido Beach dreaming and not having any thoughts of sex or violence, but just dreaming.

She was dreaming that she was flying high above the Pacific Ocean, and all of the people called her The Breeze, because, well, because she was a fucking superhero.

She flew past Japan and then China and all of Europe and past Florida and Texas and Arizona and finally back to her home where they'd built statues just for her because she was the hero and she was amazing.

Had Brianna actually been awake she would have noticed that her arms and legs were swinging at a rapid pace and that the bed itself was moving every time Brianna jolted in her dream.

But Breeze didn't know that nor did she care, all she cared about at that moment was dreaming and dreaming about how amazing she was and how amazing her life was and how awesome it would be to have super powers.

She would save kittens from trees and punch holes in walls and shoot beams of light at evil people to make them regret their mischievous ways and – she would just be awesome!

Brianna smiled to herself and rolled off her bed smacking onto the cold floor.

"Ow." She groaned, and then she zipped right back into bed.

But she didn't even notice…

17

Computer Jack was one of the kids in the area that didn't sleep away his final night before all of the adults disappeared. He was browsing the internet from a laptop he'd stolen from the laboratory technician, and he was searching through all of his computer-related topics as the night droned on.

He wasn't the average teenage boy that would look up pornography for hours but instead he was more interested in expanding the database known as his brain.

He looked through different articles discussing a multitude of new technological advances, including a brand new iPhone, not that anyone had caught up to the iPhone craze in Perdido Beach at that time.

It's funny because after the FAYZ would come and go, Computer Jack would have been the only person who actually increased his knowledge in the things he loved and not tons of other pointless garbage, but where Computer Jack ended up by the time the FAYZ went he wouldn't need to know any more about computers.

Because who needs computers in Hell?

There's a rumbling noise in the hallway and Jack climbs out of bed and shoves the laptop under it. He stands up and pulls a pair of shorts off of the floor and gets them on, his slight muffin top hanging over his shorts.

He wasn't Charles Merriman fat, but he definitely had his chunkiness.

He walks out into the hallway and looks around, you could imagine his surprise when he saw Diana and Caine walking down the boy dormitory hallway.

He continued peeking out of the door as they walked by and he heard Diana say something about taking care of an "issue."

He shuts the door and then goes back to his bed, he thinks to himself a few seconds about whether or not it would have been smart to follow Diana and Caine to see what they were up to and then nodded, thinking he made the sound decision.

It's at impasses like this that the creative mind ponders what would have happened if Jack followed Diana and Caine. Would Caine have killed him in the same way he attempted to kill Diana? And what if he succeeded?

Who would have helped the town figure out the majority of their technological issues, and the better question – who would have saved Sam from the onslaught of bullets in the end of the FAYZ?

These aren't questions that passed Jack's mind as his eyes fluttered closed for the final time before the poof, but these questions are perhaps better for someone who could investigate the possibilities of the outcome.

Perhaps a fanfiction author.

18

Astrid sits in the corner of her room listening to Nerezza whisper in her ear softly about the gaiaphage and all of its mysterious powers.

"And lastly, my dear, you're going to praise the Darkness, and you're going to be sure to spread his words among all of the children." She whispers.

"Yes mistress." Astrid says.

"Nerezza." The Dark Man, Walter O'Dim, Randall Flagg, or whatever else you'd like to call him – walks into the room and puts his hands on the young girl's shoulders.

"Yes?" She says, agitated.

"I don't want the girl to be turned to us like this, I want her to go with her own free will."

"She's a fanatic Walter. If we don't do this then she's going to overpower us. She heavily believes in God, and for reasons unbeknownst to me I can't get her to completely move on from Him." Nerezza speaks softly, not breaking eye contact with Astrid.

"What did I just say?" Walter mutters.

"I didn't sign up for this Walter. I didn't want this. You pushed this on me and you gave me a mission. You made me do this!"

"And now you're going to make her do it? You're going to take away her chance just as I took away yours and for what? To prove that you're powerful now?"

Nerezza steps away from Astrid and she falls to the ground, eyes wide open. Walter walks over to her and puts a hand on her head. Immediately everything that's happened to Astrid recently is forgotten, and her brain reverts to its Christian-genius ways.

Walter stands up and walks over to Nerezza and hugs her tight.

"You are my bride Allison. You always will be." He says.

"Don't call me by my real name." She murmurs.

"It's time for you to go home. I apologize for not letting you stay, and if things get really bad here then I'll call you to return. But for now you have to go back to the Other World."

"Walter don't-"

"I'm sorry."

A bright light fills Astrid's room and suddenly the figure standing in Walter's arms disappears. Walter looks towards the third woman in the room and speaks softly.

"Bailey. Did you stop the other two before they could escape?"

She nods. "Fang and Cody have been stopped master."

"Good. Clean up the mess will you? And then get the hell out of here."

Bailey grabs Walter's hand before he can leave the room.

"Are you going to be alright?" She asks.

He doesn't nod and he doesn't shake his head. Suddenly the very thought of the fact that soon the body he's inhabited for many years was going to be gone forever scared him, and he thought for a second that maybe he was making the wrong choice. Maybe he should go back to the Dark Lord and tell him he couldn't do this, or maybe ask the Crimson King for reassignment, whatever he could do to get away from this terrible job.

He walks away from Bailey hurriedly and shuts the door to Astrid's bedroom. The bright blue light coming from Nemesis' bedroom is the only thing that snaps him out of it.

He looks towards the door and fixes his denim jacket, and then walks over to it, ready for his final encounter with the autistic boy of the town of Perdido Beach.

He puts his hand on the door knob and then sighs quietly before opening the door to the boy's room. Nemesis is floating above his bed with legs crossed Indian style. His eyes are wide open and the iris' are a bright iridescent blue.

"Nemesis." Walter says.

**Shall we begin?**

19

The Hot Pocket in the microwave is slowly being heated up as it turns slowly on the glass platter. It pops and crackles as the cheese oozes out of the top, and the aroma begins to fill the kitchen where a young man is watching with hungry eyes.

Hunter Lefkowitz watching a microwave could perhaps be laughable because of the very fact that one day he would be his own microwave, in a way.

One second before the microwave beeps Hunter opens the door and pulls his hot pocket out, silently shutting it afterwards and then creeping back to his bedroom.

He lays down on his bed and bites into the cheesy bread and then spits it back out because he burns his mouth.

He blows on the Hot Pocket and eventually eats the entire thing. He places the plate next to his bed and rubs his tummy, completely satisfied. Just like all of the adults in Perdido Beach, that Hot Pocket was gone, but just like that Hot Pocket-

Hunter farts.

All of the adults would return eventually.

20 – _FLASHBACK_

"So this guy gave up his soul for gold?" The boy asks as Walter puts the gold bars underneath the wooden floorboards. Just two feet away the dead body of Hermit Jim lies underneath the same floor, but Lana would never find that. Nor would anyone.

"Yup. He gave it up, and I just came to collect." Walter says.

The boy pauses and then mutters, ""Tell me something Walter."

"Hm?" Walter says as he puts the last gold bar down.

"Who the fuck is Hermit Jim?" The boy asks.

Walter wipes his forehead and then puts the floorboard back before walking over to the boy, "You mean, who the fuck **was** Hermit Jim?"

21 - _PRESENT_

Diana looked up from the floor at Caine and watched as he held his hands up defensively.

"If you touch me I'll do it again." He says.

She stands up and dusts off her shirt before frowning at him, "Don't worry. I'll never touch you again. But you have to help me."

"And if I refuse?" He says, lowering his hands.

"Then I'll tell the police what you two psychopaths did."

Caine looks down at his hands as if weighing his options and then lowers them. He averts his gaze over to Drake and then looks back at Diana.

"What do you want me to do?"

She walks closer to him and he defensively puts his hands up. She grabs him by the wrists and he lowers them, deflated.

"I want to hurt him. I want to make him regret what he tried to do."

"Who?"

"Drake."

Caine seems to ponder the idea and then pulls his wrists away from Diana. He walks closer to Drake and then sighs.

"Fine. I suppose."

"Look I get you two had whatever the fuck you had but-"

Caine slams Diana against the wall and then looks in her eyes, "Don't talk about that. That wasn't for you to see and it didn't fucking mean anything to me."

He looks at her and then his eyes move slightly down to her lips, and he takes in their plumpness before going back to her eyes. Her eyes are squinted out of fear and she doesn't notice him checking her out.

He pulls her closer to him by her hips and grabs her ass roughly. She moans into his neck and he moans back, spreading her ass apart and pulling roughly.

"What are you-" Diana mutters.

"Shut up." Caine says, and she does.

He keeps rubbing up and down her ass and then slides his hands up her shirt and rubs her torso, she moans again and then pushes him off.

"That's enough."

He looks at her and his face is flushed. He walks away from Diana and looks to the bed where Drake is still laying fast asleep.

"Wake up." Caine mutters.

"He can't hear-"

"DRAKE! WAKE UP!"

Drake jumps out of the bed clad in only his boxers, and for a brief second while he's getting up his entire package is visible, but then standing he looks at Diana and Caine, surprised.

"What the fuck is going- Diana. How?" He blinks repeatedly as Caine walks towards him.

"We all need to go for a walk." Caine says.

Drake looks at him and then looks at Diana, and then he nods.

The trio walks out of the room and Caine locks the door. They head down the hallway until Drake stops. "Where are we going exactly?"

Caine turns to face him. "We're going behind the school."

Drake looks in the opposite direction and then nods his head. "Alright then. I'll meet you both there. I'd rather walk alone."

Diana speaks, "Drake that's not-"

"Shut up. Bitch." He says, and then walks down the hallway in the other direction.

Caine looks to Diana and her eyes flutter away the pain before she balls up her fist. She looks over to Caine and then forces a smile, "He's a real asshole."

"Only to the people who deserve it."

He starts to walk away and she storms after him. "That's not fair. You two tried to kill me?"

"Yeah, and what's this going to change? Huh? What if we get out there and he just tries to kill you again?"

Caine smacks the wall really hard and then starts to walk away. Diana follows behind him and responds, "This is our collective issue Caine. This is an issue we need to talk about."

"Drake is not a fucking issue!" Caine yells.

A door opens behind Diana and a young boy peeks out, neither of them notice.

"Would you quiet down?" Diana says.

Caine grunts and then starts to run down the hallway. Diana watches him and then sighs, completely exasperated.

She turns around and walks back in the direction that Drake went in and then turns into the female hallway. She was thinking to herself that this what she was about to do was a terrible idea. But she holds her breath, pulls out her bedroom key, and unlocks the door.

She opens the door and looks at Penny in bed. She can tell by the way the girl budges when she walks in that she isn't asleep.

"Wake up Penny." Diana says.

Diana turns on the light and then looks over to Penny who's now sitting up in her bed, "What is it?"

"I have to tell you something but you have to swear you won't tell anyone." Diana adds.

Penny nods.

"Swear Penny!"

"I swear, Diana."

Diana twiddles her thumbs and then sits on the corner of Penny's bed.

After a few seconds of silence Penny grunts and then says, "What is it Diana?"

A few more seconds pass and then Diana looks up at Penny, now trying to figure out whether or not the girl can be trusted.

"I know you're different."

Penny looks at Diana, confused.

Diana looks away from Penny again, and out of the window that shows the area behind the school.

"I need you to help me kill Caine and Drake."

22

The worst part of walking home alone in the desert was the cold.

During the daytime it was the heat you had to worry about, but at night the cold was a much bigger threat.

Nemesis had teleported both of them here, but he was hiding. Walter was walking in the direction of Coates Academy, trying to find some cover so the man in the little boy's body couldn't sneak up on him.

He saw a lone figure standing in the darkness behind the academy and could feel the darkness inside the figure almost immediately.

Walter smiled and felt a lot safer knowing that one of his own was out here.

Now coming from the side of the school was another figure, this one not as dark as the last, but also having a fair amount of darkness clinging on to his soul.

Walter moved closer to hear the two as they got close, but then saw two females exit the back of the building. One of the females was a tall, beautiful woman. The one whom he helped escape a makeshift burial in the desert, and the other one was a girl whose head he had been inside of a few times in the past. Penny, her name was.

She would be a threat.

The four met up and Walter was close enough to hear as the conversation began to unravel.

"What is she doing here?" Drake said, with extra venom on the word she, obviously directed towards Penny.

Diana looked at Caine and then Drake with traces of dawn illuminating her face. "I told her to come with me so I'd be safe, if either of you try anything funny I'll tell her everything and she'll run. And she'll scream."

Caine looked over to Drake but Drake didn't return the look. His gaze was affixed on Penny, unwavering and steady.

"So do it Caine. Make him pay." Diana said.

"What?" Drake said, finally looking away from Penny and at Caine.

"Caine is going to mess you up for what you did to me. Or tried to do." Diana said.

Drake turned to face Caine and grinned. "You're really going to betray me for this bitch Caine? After everything we did?"

Caine's face expression was solid, and almost scary. He raised his hands up to Drake and then spoke loudly, "We didn't do ANYTHING."

He blasted Drake with the same force Diana had felt earlier, and Drake flew seven feet.

Caine wasn't using the same gravitational powers he would earn when the FAYZ came down, instead the darkness that had a tendril around his soul from the Dark Man was so strong that it could in fact be focused into blasts of energy that Caine was releasing now. Caine would never feel the difference other than the fact that he couldn't raise or lower himself at this point, but this same power would also dissipate when the FAYZ finally rose, not that it mattered as Caine would dissipate before that time as well.

Drake stood up quickly and got in a ready stance to take on Drake, but suddenly a bright light made them all break their cautionary stances.

A figure was running towards them from the desert, with bright blue light all around it.

"What the fuck is that?" Drake said.

"None of our business." Diana said, "We need to get inside, now. Whatever that is… its trouble. I can feel it."

Caine looks away from the figure and towards Diana, "Is this some kind of trick Diana?"

Diana looks to Caine and her face shows the amount of fear she feels. "You don't understand Caine. We have to-"

The Dark Man stood quickly from his place of hiding and blasted a ball of red light around his children and the four immediately vanished and were put into their bedrooms, never to remember the illuminated figure.

But they would be safe.

Walter readies himself for the attack as Nemesis barrels closer.

Nemesis smashes into him at an insane speed, but Walter holds his ground and pushes the boy back.

"Nemesis."

**The Man of the Light is gone. Soon I will revert back to my autistic state and I will no longer be able to communicate. But I will find a way to trap you in here Walter O'Dim. You will not get out of this city.**

"Yes I will Nemesis. I'll get out of here and I'll stop the Wise Man."

**No. You will not. I swear it.**

"Goodbye Nemesis."

Walter blasts Nemesis in the face and the boy disappears. He looks off in the distance towards the shack and then starts to race in that direction, covered only in a red shroud of energy that was once covering Nemesis as he barreled down the desert.

23

Quinn walks home as the sun rises for the last true time for a long time on Perdido Beach. He smiles to himself and then looks off at the sun and thinks it's going to be a beautiful day, before sneaking back into his bedroom window and shutting it behind him.

As the hustle-and-bustle begins for the last time in Perdido Beach, Quinn is completely content with his life, and ready for the world all over again.

24

Charles Merriman wakes up early and runs downstairs to prepare for school. He brushes his teeth and looks in the mirror. He sees three new pimples that surfaced overnight and then pops them all. They all bleed individually and Orc wipes his face off with a piece of toilet paper. A little pebble sits near the toilet, perhaps it came from his shoes one night when he was taking them off before a shower, or maybe he dragged it in after rough housing in the park after school one day.

He looked at the little rock in its untarnished glory and noticed how unblemished it seemed, and he squeezed it between his fat fingers, trying to break it but to no avail.

He threw the pebble like a mini _missile_ down the hallway. It shattered into little pieces on the wall and then laughed to himself.

Sometimes the symbolism in our life is humorous, but sometimes it's just downright scary.  
This is one of the times when it's scary.

25 – _FINAL FLASHBACK – HERMIT JIM'S SHACK_

"Where did he get all the gold Walter?" The boy with the purple eyes asks.

"He got it from the mine. He sold his soul so that he could find it because he was desperate enough to do so." Walter answers.

"So this guy gave up his soul for gold?" The boy asks as Walter puts the gold bars underneath the wooden floorboards. Just two feet away the dead body of Hermit Jim lies underneath the same floor, but Lana would never find that. Nor would anyone.

"Yup. He gave it up, and I just came to collect." Walter says.

The boy pauses and then mutters, ""Tell me something Walter."

"Hm?" Walter says as he puts the last gold bar down.

"Who the fuck is Hermit Jim?" The boy asks.

Walter wipes his forehead and then puts the floorboard back before walking over to the boy, "You mean, who the fuck **was** Hermit Jim?"

"Yeah. Who was he?" The boy answers.

"Well, Hermit Jim was a nuclear intelligence scientist who after failing to contain a particularly bad meltdown here in this small town, had to go into hiding. He came here to this shack, Lord knows who built it but here it is. He went over to the mine nearby and sold his soul to the Devil, begging to find gold. He found the gold and brought it back here, and well, he was going to leave tomorrow morning for Vegas but-"

"But you killed him." The boy finishes.

"Right-O." Walter says.

"So the meltdown, was it ever fully contained?"

"Nope. The meltdown leaked underneath the city into the sewage causing all kinds of craziness. It even caused a birth defect in the wife of one of the scientist's. The boy's name is Peter Ellison, and he was born with autism."

"What's autism?"

"I call it an other-worldly disease. Some people on Earth thinks it's a bad thing but it actually gives him the ability to be a seeker, and to see all of the demons for what they are that can walk the Earth."

"I think my best friend's got a friend who had autism."

"You mean Henry?" Walter asks.

"Yeah, Henry's got a friend." The boy adds. Walter covers the hole in the ground and then wipes off his hands.

"So, Walter. Who knows about the meltdown?"

Walter sits down on a rocking chair and lights his pipe, he takes a large inhale and then exhales it right away not caring to hold it in.

He holds up three fingers.

"Steven Gerandy, or Hermit Jim as he will be known for the rest of his days in the ground. He's dead." Walter puts down the pipe and one finger.

"Arthur Temple. This is his body I took," He taps his forehead and smiles, "So he's dead."

"And a man named Martin Ellison."

24 - _PRESENT_

"Wake up your brother, Astrid, he's coming with me to work today." Astrid's dad, Martin says.

"Okay dad." Astrid answers, and walks over to Pete's room. She can't remember any of the pain from the night before and has completely forgotten it all as she wakes up her brother.

She gets him dressed and hands him his Gameboy, and after bringing him to the car and kissing her father on the cheek, she walks back inside.

Martin drives to the nuclear power plant and brings his kid inside, leaving him in the typical place before walking over to his desk and looking over some paper work.

Perhaps Martin knew it was his duty to die or maybe he wouldn't have tried what he was about to try. He walked towards Little Pete one final time and kissed his son on the forehead before walking over to the computer terminal and typing in a few codes.

The codes would lock all of the other scientists out of the main lab and give him time to get to the nuclear side of the nuclear power plant. He had to see something. He had to see if he could stop a second meltdown.

He walked away from his son and then opened the door leading to the nuclear power, and with one final glance at the boy that would save Perdido Beach he shut the door and moved on to his destiny.

25

Edilio walked to the school from his home, and he watched a young boy on a skateboard ride away from the bus that he'd just gotten off of.

School Bus Sam is what they called that boy. Edilio was new but he'd heard all about that boy. The hero of the school.

_One day you'll be like him, _Edilio thought, and he smiled as he thought it.

26

As the kids shift into the classroom before the Poof, the emergency phone in the mayor's office begins to ring but nobody is there to answer it.

Nobody is there to stop what is about to happen.

27

Walter walks into the shack and grabs the keys off of the desk near the door and grabs the bottle of tequila sitting next to it.

He drinks it down and then throws it aside as he steps out of the shack. He walks over to the pickup truck and starts it, and he drives away from the shack

He looks off into the distance as the sun rises and he smiles.

"Beautiful day to end the world." He says.

Walter pulls into the makeshift shed that Jim built next to the mine and then gets out of the truck. He leaves the shed and shuts the door as he walks over to the mine.

Coyotes from all over the area start to approach him as he walks up to the mine but he ignores them as he walks in.

He looks around the mine and smiles at the darkness.

"I'm safe. And now for the meltdown." Walter waits for the final moments and can hear the siren at the power plant going off. He smiles. "It's time."

28

Martin Ellison is aggressively pushing the keys on the keyboard, losing his mind as he tries to blow up the nuclear power plant.

Well, not blow it up, but in fact disable it.

Sure it would leave the city without power but he couldn't live with the guilt, he couldn't live with knowing he would cause another pregnancy defect like his wife's with Peter.

He puts the code into the computer, the initials of the three scientists who caused the first meltdown, and the two scientists who were gone forever because of it.

**S A M**

And suddenly the sirens blared.

29

Peter Ellison sat in the office as the sirens blared. He put his hands to his head, not understanding what was going on due to the loss of the Man of the Light, the man who helped him understand the simple things.

He couldn't understand the noise.

But he had the power.

Oh, he had the power.

**And so the FAYZ came.**

**30**

Walter looked off into the distance completely confused. The boy? What did he do? What had he done? Walter could feel himself crumbling, he could feel his body losing power.

Walter did the insane then, he pushed his soul out of the body and into the floor of the mine, and a millisecond before the FAYZ came into existence, Walter was safe because he was in the mine and not the body of an adult.

**And so the Gaiaphage came.**

_Meanwhile…_

One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone.

There.

Gone.

No "poof." No flash of light. No explosion.

"You saw that right?" Sam Temple muttered to Mary Terrafino.

"Um, where's Mr. Trentlake?" Quinn said.

"He must have left." Mary answered.

"No, man. **Poof**."

**And so it was.**

_**END, of the Beginning.**_

* * *

**To the fans, thank you so much for the ride. This has been an amazing experience and it was a lot of fun. Please leave your final thoughts. And may the Man of the Light forever guide you! ~ Tremax **


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